Clint Eastwood had to be persuaded to star in this crime thriller

Few movie stars have ever had a more unerring understanding of what their fans want than Clint Eastwood. The biggest risk he ever took was, in fact, no risk at all. Yes, he spent one of his last breaks from the hit CBS western “Rawhide” to make a very different kind of western with an Italian auteur Sergio Leone in “A Fistful of Dollars” but if that movie had flopped, he’d still be an in-demand TV star. Instead, the low-budget, unusually violent flick for its time became an international hit (three years before its 1967 U.S. release) and made Eastwood look like a counterculture pioneer for the way he spat in the face of the traditional Westerns he still makes. John Wayne.

Eastwood’s reputation as arguably Hollywood’s biggest star was cemented in 1971 when he brandished a .44 Magnum and chased down a thrill-seeking killer in Dirty Harry. Eastwood has made a stinker from time to time (like The Gauntlet, Sudden Impact, and City Heat), but it was only in 1990 with “Rookie” that he seemed to briefly lose the ability to connect with his audience. He then went on to make his best film to date in Unforgiven.

Ever since then, Eastwood has made films that are undeniably Eastwood in their grumpiness and strange delicacy. That’s not to say they’re always comforting (good luck making you feel anything other than devastated at the end of Million Dollar Baby ), but they force you to wrestle with their complex themes. There’s only been one film along the way where Eastwood has felt a little out of character, so you might not be surprised that he needed a bit of a push to pull it off.

A consistently weird story about an elderly man who, teetering on the edge of financial collapse, agrees to smuggle cocaine for a Mexican cartel, 2018’s Mule wasn’t a slam dunk for Eastwood – at least when it came to his playing the lead role. At first glance, Earl Stone isn’t too far out of the star’s comfort zone; he’s too old for it***, which, as some critics noted at the time, made the film seem like Eastwood’s farewell, if not to directing, then to acting.

In an interview with The MetrographEastwood was once skeptical of the role of Earl before an assistant convinced him to take the plunge. As he told the audience:

“When I did (…) Mule, I liked the script, but I had no idea what to do in it. I thought, “This is what I’m going to direct.” My girlfriend at the office said, “You should play.” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I just thought it was a good script and an interesting project. Why not.

Mule, like many of Eastwood’s late-career films, is a modest work, but still incredibly important. Although it didn’t generate much buzz as an Oscar winner upon its theatrical release, the film has since become a cult favorite. Now that Eastwood is 94 years old, people are bracing for Eastwood’s reputation after a completely flop release his very good court drama “Jurir #2.” That’s when we need that girl in his office to come over and convince him to try again because he still has something important to say.