Chalk this one up to as one of the great “What if?” entries of all time. In an interview with Hero Complex, legendary badass Clint Eastwood has revealed he turned down lead roles in some of the biggest franchises of all time, saying “no thanks” to James Bond and “Superman.”
“I can remember – and this was many years ago – when [Warner Bros. President] Frank Wells came to me about doing Superman. So it could have happened. This was when they first started to think about making it. I was like, ‘Superman? Nah, nah, that’s not for me.’ Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s for somebody, but not me. “I was also offered pretty good money to do James Bond if I would take on the role. This was after Sean Connery left. My lawyer represented the Broccolis,” who produce the Bond franchise, “and he came and said, ‘They would love to have you.’ But to me, well, that was somebody else’s gig. That’s Sean’s deal. It didn’t feel right for me to be doing it.”
Clint is a smart guy, and as much as we love ’em, he’s right that he would’ve been totally wrong for both roles. He goes on to explain he didn’t have much enthusiasm for comic characters saying, “I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality. Maybe they do super things or more-than-human things — like Dirty Harry, he has a knack for doing crazy things, or the western guys — but, still, they’re not caped crusaders.”
But the one comic film that might’ve piqued Eastwood’s interest is a bit of surprise. The actor/director reveals “….the Sub-Mariner, that’s the one I always liked. I had all of those comics when I was a kid.”
We can’t reconcile the image of Clint Eastwood reading comics but it does make one wonder. His latest film “Hereafter” hits TIFF this weekend and will open in theaters on October 22nd.