Eastwood plays Hardball

Fresh off the Oscar success of “Million Dollar Baby,” Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood went toe-to-toe with Chris Matthews on March 15, 2005. Below is a partial transcript of the interview:

On the controversy surrounding "Million Dollar Baby":
CLINT EASTWOOD, DIRECTOR: For some reason— it used to always be the knee-jerk liberal.  Now it's the knee-jerk conservative.  You get somebody who decided he's saying a message--

MATTHEWS: Is this high-paying piety that's going on here?

EASTWOOD: Yeah, I think so.  I don't think anybody has the answer, everybody wants to politicize everything.  I don't politicize things.. I wasn't making a statement in any picture that's the final end-all, it's just a way of going.

*  *  *
MATTHEWS: Is there a resentment in Hollywood against guys who move to the conservative side of things politically?

EASTWOOD: Well, let's face it, they are the minority, and if you like being part of a minority group then you should be a conservative in Hollywood.  That works well.

MATTHEWS: People accept your sort of libertarianism, don't they?

EASTWOOD:  I think so, I've just never been on the left side.  Most self-made people aren't.  But then sometimes people are— you get people who are idealistic, everybody's idealistic when you're a kid.

*  *  *
MATTHEWS: What do you think of Arnold?

EASTWOOD: I think he's doing good, I think he's doing very well.  He has an advantage over most politicians, he doesn't need the job—

MATTHEWS: Because he's rich?

EASTWOOD: Yeah, and he's got a career, he can always go back to doing films.  So he's trying different things, he's trying to shake it up, and god knows we needed it.

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