Last Drive Down the Actor Road for Clint?

By Anthony Breznican

Eastwood is back in your face.

Perhaps the most successful and prolific actor to turn director, Clint Eastwood’s appearances on screen have become increasingly sparse over the years as he has taken on projects that don’t have roles for him.

The last one was four years ago as the boxing manager in Million Dollar Baby, which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor. He didn’t win, but the movie added best picture and best director to his Academy Award victories.

He directs himself again in Gran Torino, a drama about a racist Army veteran and former autoworker who reluctantly bonds with a Hmong immigrant neighbor over his classic car.

Eastwood, 78, is producing, directing and even composing music for movies at an age when other filmmakers would be retired. Acting is the only area in which he has cut back.

“Yeah, it’ll probably be my last,” he says. “I’ll be drummed out of it after this one.”

After more than 50 years and dozens of iconic characters, could he be serious?

That familiar dry voice on the phone turns into a chuckle. “Nah, I’m just kidding.”

But Eastwood acknowledges the thought crosses his mind. “Every time you do one you think, ‘Aw, that’s enough of that.’ I always feel it’s very comfortable to be behind the camera.”

And then there’s working with the director. “Yeah, I don’t have to deal with him,” Eastwood says, laughing again. (The last time he didn’t direct himself was 15 years ago, in Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire.)

Turning serious, he acknowledges the obvious about acting in Gran Torino. “It was fun. But I’m not destined to do too many more. I’ve been happy doing the ones I haven’t been in.” (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.