“I needed a mask”: Sergio Leone Cast Clint Eastwood in Iconic Trilogy Despite Thinking Low of Him
Legendary American actor and film director Clint Eastwood has been in the entertainment industry for more than six decades now. After several unsuccessful auditions, he kickstarted his career with a minor role in Jack Arnold’s Revenge of the Creature, which was a sequel to 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon. He did not get his breakthrough role until 1958 when he was cast as Rowdy Yates in the CBS hour-long western series Rawhide.
In 1963, Clint Eastwood got the chance to break free of his Rawhide image with the lead role in a spaghetti Western called A Fistful of Dollars. This was the role that catapulted the actor to unparalleled fame and established him as the best in the business when it came to Westerns. However, the reason why he got that first role is rather hilarious.
Sergio Leone Was Not a fan of Clint Eastwood
It is rather bizarre to think of a time when Clint Eastwood was just another actor in the industry jumping from one job to another rather than the superstar that we know him as now. The fact that he has been successful in the industry only by making movies that he wants to make and that even consistently for decades.
During the eight years in which he starred in Rawhide, Eastwood did not make a movie. He was a TV star and it was unlikely for the TV audience to cross over to movies. So, at the time, going over to Italy to take on the role of Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars was the only way for him to have a substantial role in a film.
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The Every Which Way but Loose star was cast in the movie, but he was not Sergio Leone’s first choice. In fact, according to a post on X, Leone was not a fan of Eastwood. The post reads:
“Eastwood only had two facial expressions at times, as Leone liked to joke: “With hat, and without a hat.”. “More than a man, I needed a mask…” the director said.”
One of the major reasons why Clint Eastwood was cast in the movie was that there was a budget issue. The actor had to be paid only a meager $15000 for the part so it sorted that problem out.
Clint Eastwood on Why He Starred in A Fistful of Dollars
A Fistful of Dollars is a spaghetti Western, loosely based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Clint Eastwood revealed his reasons for choosing to do that movie in an interview with The Independent in 2009. He said:
“I was doing a TV series, Rawhide, and I’d been doing it for quite a few seasons, so I was kinda bored with it. I didn’t necessarily want to do a Western on a hiatus period, but I thought it seemed like a nice thing to do. Especially because Yojimbo, when I first saw it back in the Fifties, I thought of as a great Western screenplay. I thought nobody would have the nerve to do it that way. But, fortunately, Sergio did.”
Eastwood also knew the reason why Sergio Leone agreed to cast him in the lead role. He jokingly told the outlet he was chosen, “Because I was cheap.” Well, after starring in the Dollars Trilogy, Eastwood certainly did not remain cheap for long.
