Why Clint Eastwood Turned Down Die Hard, Revealed
Die Hard is one of the best action films ever and has now been more than relevant with all the pop culture references. Director John McTiernan based it on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. The lead character, John McClane is played by Bruce Willis in this highly successful film series, but there could have been someone else. It was recently revealed that the first choice to play McClane was Clint Eastwood! Well, check it out!
Die Hard With Clint Eastwood?
It is recently explained that it was Clint Eastwood who was going to play the titular character. Die Hard screenwriter Jeb Stuart told SlashFilm that Eastwood declined the role. Jeb was surely surprised when the actor declined the role because the role was written with him as the inspiration. Check out his full comments:
“They went to Clint Eastwood first. Ironically, his response to the producers was, ‘I don’t get the humour.’ This, for me, was a shock because if you listen to a lot of those words, Eastwood’s one of the few people who could have delivered a line like ‘Come to LA, have a great time.’ All that kind of stuff. You could see him doing that. He was my inspiration.”
However, there’s another interesting fact. Eastwood was not the only A-list actor to reject this role. Sever big names like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, and Richard Fere are some of them. Die Hard franchise led by Eastwood is surely interesting but adding another major franchise under his belt would have been too much. Plus the physical toll would have been too much.
Of course, we are not doubting the actor’s capabilities. Moreover, one of the reasons why the McClane character was a big hit was that it was made with Eastwood as the inspiration. However, Bruce Willis did a pretty good job with the role and the franchise was profitably solid. The actor has achieved a lot in his career and he proved just right for the role, so much so it was impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.
