Clint Eastwood has had an extremely successful career spanning over six decades,
which has included dozens of popular films and five Oscar wins. As the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences once proclaimed, Eastwood is "one of the film industry's most
respected actors and directors." For all of his accomplishments, however,
Eastwood has also stirred up plenty of controversy - particularly among his peers in Tinseltown.
Fueled by his penchant to say whatever is on his mind,
the Hollywood legend has occasionally made headlines for the wrong reasons.
Eastwood once engaged in a politically-charged feud with director Spike Lee. When Lee criticized
the lack of representation in the casts of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima,
Eastwood publicly told him to, quote, "shut his face."
Luckily, in this instance, tensions between the two have since cooled down. Lee told Access,
“That thing with Clint was overblown, and that stuff was squashed. We’re cool.”
Other quarrels have taken on lives of their own - like the one with Michael Moore.
The documentary filmmaker's entire career has been based on openly expressing his
opinion and that's exactly how he sparked a showdown with Eastwood.
It all started with a single tweet, when Moore proclaimed that "snipers aren't heroes," revealing
that his uncle had been killed by one during the second World War. Given the timing of the tweet,
many thought the filmmaker was taking a dig at Eastwood's American Sniper film. Moore responded
on Facebook that he wasn't, but he did go on to offer his opinion on the movie. He praised
some aspects of it, including Bradley Cooper's performance, before throwing shade at Eastwood.
He wrote,
"Too bad Clint gets Vietnam and Iraq confused in his storytelling.
And that he has his characters calling Iraqis 'savages' throughout the film."
Rumors then began recirculating that Eastwood had
threatened Moore's life - leading Moore to return to Facebook to clarify things.
He wrote in his post,
"Clint Eastwood stood in front of the National Board of Review awards dinner
and announced to me and to the crowd that he would 'kill' me if
I ever came to his house with my camera for an interview."
Despite being a bit stunned by what he called "such a violent statement,"
Moore laughed the whole thing off.
However, he wasn't so sure that Eastwood saw any humor in the situation. Moore went on to say...
"Clint, though, didn't seem to like all that laughter. [...] 'I mean it,' he barked,
and the audience grew more quiet. 'I'll shoot you.'"
During an appearance at CinemaCon that April,
Eastwood claimed the story wasn't true, but jokingly added…
"It isn't a bad idea."
"Get off my lawn."
Through the years, Eastwood has even raised the ire of a few well-known musicians,
including Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In August 2016, Eastwood infamously opened up to
Esquire about his dislike of political correctness - and appeared to praise
then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's divisive approach to politics.
Eastwood said...
"He's onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness,
kissing up. [...] That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now.
We're really in a p---- generation. [...] We see people accusing people of being
racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist."
When asked to clarify who exactly falls into said generation, the actor-director added…
"All these people that say, 'Oh, you can't do that,
and you can't do this, and you can't say that.' I guess it's just the times."
Flea, for one, was not having it. Wasting no time, the musician took to Twitter to respond.
He took a jab at Eastwood and proudly picked a side. In a since-deleted tweet, Flea wrote...
"Hey Clint Eastwood count me in as a p---- as we aspire to evolve above racism."
Of all the celebrities who have had problems with Eastwood, there's one who truly stands out.
Sondra Locke was a young actress who had an extraordinary start in the business. In 1968,
she earned an Oscar nomination for her debut performance in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
She later met Eastwood, and, as the Irish Times put it,
their "toxic relationship" would sadly define her career.
They first co-starred in The Outlaw Josey Wales,
and hit it off both professionally and personally. The couple ended up
making five more films together. But as Locke told The Washington Post in 1997,
"If you were in Clint Eastwood movies, you were in the Clint Eastwood movie business.
You weren't in the movie business [...] People stopped calling.
He didn't make me famous. It was never my fame - it was his fame."
When Locke voiced her desire to branch out and direct, she said it was the beginning of the
end. After 13 years together, Eastwood reportedly changed the locks on their house while she was
out. She sued for palimony and Eastwood argued that Locke was just his "occasional roommate."
They settled out of court once Locke was promised a directing deal with Warner
Brothers - which turned out to be fake. The studio rejected 30 of her scripts. In response,
Locke sued for fraud before settling out of court, and her acting-directing prospects fizzled out.
She summed up her time with Eastwood by saying this...
"My biggest misfortune, my greatest regret is that I wish I'd cut my time with Clint in half."
"How much of this s--- do I have to listen to?"
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Nicki Swift videos about celebrity feuds are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.