Clint Eastwood on "Baby"

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IT'S INTERESTING THAT YOU BRING UP DIRTY HARRY BECAUSE IT'S THE ONE PREVIOUS PICTURE OF YOURS THAT GOT IN A WHOLE BUNCH OF IDEOLOGICAL TROUBLE--THAT TIME FROM THE LEFT. Because he's saying Screw the Miranda ruling. But that doesn't mean that the picture is saying Screw Miranda. That doesn't mean I'm personally in favor of forfeiting the rights of the accused.

DO YOU THINK WE'RE ALL IN SOME WAY DRIVEN BY INEXPLICABLE FATE? Sometimes, yeah. I think sometimes certain things are just meant to happen for who knows what reason. I mean, I look back at myself at 15. I was a slow learner. Nowadays they have ADD and all these different syndromes, but when I was a kid we didn't have any of that. It was just, "Mrs. Eastwood, your son is a little slow." I'm striking a blow for C students everywhere. It took me a while to get my wheels rolling. I guess that's why they're still rolling at 74.

YOU HAD A LONG APPRENTICESHIP--ALL THOSE YEARS ON RAWHIDE AND THEN WORKING IN THE SPAGHETTI WESTERNS. THINK THAT WAS GOOD FOR YOU? OVERNIGHT STARDOM CAN BE HARMFUL TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. Yeah. It has ruined a lot of people. Like Orson Welles. He comes right out of the box with a project that everybody's knocked out by, and then all of a sudden it's like ... What do I do to follow that?

WHEN I LOOK BACK ON YOUR FILMS, EVERYBODY IN THEM IS BASICALLY A WORKING-CLASS PERSON. Yeah, well, I guess I've gravitated toward those roles. And if I have any understanding at all, maybe it lies in that area.

I THINK OF BRONCO BILLY, THE SHOE CLERK, WITH HIS DREAMS OF RESTORING THE MYTHIC OLD WEST. THAT'S HILARY SWANK'S CHARACTER TOO, ISN'T IT? Exactly. Without getting too French on you, that's the connective thing between Bronco Billy and this picture.

I'VE ACTUALLY HEARD PEOPLE SAY, "GEE, CLINT DOESN'T SEEM TO DO MUCH DIRECTING WHEN HE'S DIRECTING." Actors can become very self-conscious. They have to walk out in front of a lot of people they don't know and start performing something that may be kind of silly out of context. And even the most experienced ones come on with a certain anxiety the first few days on a set. And also, directors can get in the way sometimes by just talking too goddam much. Most of the time they're making up for their own insecurity, and it's condescending because everybody really knows what the script's about or else they wouldn't be there. So I just come in being a nice host at the party. You get them very comfortable, set a certain attitude, a certain lack of hecticness, so they can get up and make fools of themselves and not really feel foolish. And I love it.

DO YOU THINK YOUR MOVIES HARK BACK TO OLDER MOVIES? Well, I'd like that. That would be a compliment if they did. But you do it because that's the way you see it. And I suppose another person might see it differently; a younger director would maybe approach it differently. But then there's Alexander Payne [director of Sideways and About Schmidt], who's a young man but has a scope to his movies that's sort of old-fashioned.