Clint Eastwood Had Tense Moments With Sergio Leone for Making Him Do One Thing He Has Advocated Against All His Life
Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character across Sergio Leone’s classic Dollars Trilogy westerns made him an emblem of on-screen cool. But Eastwood himself reportedly hated a signature part of his character’s look – constantly smoking cigars. The sheer volume of cigars Eastwood had to chomp through led to tense moments with director Leone, despite the importance of that grizzled smoking image to the gunslinger role.
How Many Cigars Did Clint Eastwood Smoke During Filming?
According to Far Out Magazine, as the steely-eyed stranger drifted into bloody showdowns in films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Clint Eastwood knew smoking cigars would craft his desired “Western hero” image. But he actually despised them.
“I went out and bought a bunch of cigars that I thought would look good in a western,” Eastwood told The Independent. “I had no idea they’d taste so vile.”
Without access to prop cigarettes used today, Eastwood slugged through countless real, nauseating cigars across all that smoking screen time. He even warned Sergio Leone when his patience wore thin:
“You better get it this time, because I’m going to throw up.”
Also Read: Clint Eastwood’s Career Arc as Pop and Country Singer Soured Him Forever: “I’ve tried to stay away”
Why Did Clint Eastwood Hate Smoking So Much?
Ironically, despite his on-screen smoking persona, Eastwood has never actually been a smoker in real life.
“I brought those [cigars] along with me and I gave them to props and we cut them all up,” he said.
Having to constantly light up and take draws of “vile-tasting” cigars clearly took its toll.
Eastwood’s distaste for the smoking led to tense moments with director Leone amid multiple takes of scenes requiring yet more cigars. But Eastwood pushed through the discomfort, helping cement the Man With No Name’s iconic grizzled western image in cinematic history.
What Makes the Character’s Smoking So Crucial?
It’s hard to imagine Eastwood’s stoic gunslinger character without a dangling unlit cigar waiting to be chomped down on.
The poncho-clad outsider squinting steely-eyed at opponents with a cigarette hanging from his mouth became the epitome of Western cool. As classic sidearms were drawn, lighting up another cigar was Eastwood’s signature flourish in the tense build-up to countless climactic gun battles.
So despite his hatred of smoking, Eastwood recognized the crucial role all those cigars played in defining his antihero gunfighter persona on-screen. His sacrifice in gritting through “vile” cigar after cigar contributed enormously to the legendary status of Leone’s iconic trilogy today.
