Scott Eastwood Opens Up About Girlfriend’s Fatal Car Crash

Scott Eastwood is making a name for himself as an actor, independent from his famous father’s shadow, but that doesn’t mean the son of legendary actor-turned-director Clint Eastwood has forgotten his past. To the contrary, Scott is still affected by his relationship with his father and even more so by the tragic death of one of his past girlfriends. Mr. Eastwood is so haunted by the unnamed girl’s death that he felt compelled to share the experience in a recent interview, revealing that news of the girl’s passing was the last time he cried openly.

Scott Eastwood On Coming To Terms With Girlfriend’s Death

Now 30-years-old, Scott says he lost a girlfriend in a fatal car crash a few years ago and admits to GQ magazine that the loss affected him deeply. He says, even at that time, he had lost friends and adds that he had also lost family members, but the actor says he had never experienced the passing of a love interest prior to the car crash that claimed the life of his then-girlfriend. Eastwood says that having been intimate with her and involved in a committed relationship affected how he experienced that loss.

“It was a fender bender, and there was a recall on airbags,” Eastwood explains of the accident’s cause. “Her airbag exploded. It shot a projectile through her body. It split her spine.”

The death of that girlfriend still haunts him, and Scott reveals that even now, years afterwards, he’s still unable to speak to her father. Scott has been unable to think of the right words.

“I think that really affected me in a way that… I don’t know. Maybe it’s made it harder for me to date,” revealed Eastwood.

Suicide Squad Star Scott Eastwood Finds Dating Has Evolved

Scott may find it harder to date, but not impossible. People magazine reports that Scott’s friends have said that the Suicide Squad actor doesn’t have any trouble finding dates, and that must be true, because he has most recently been linked to former The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev. Still, Eastwood says dating now, as an older adult, is much different from the experience as a teenager or a twenty-something younger adult.

“It’s easy to fall in love when you’re young, right?” Eastwood said. “And then you start to realize those feelings of love and stuff, passion, love, lust, sometimes they come very quickly, but they can also leave quickly.”

Growing up under Clint Eastwood’s wing hasn’t been easy for Scott, but he explains it has taught him responsibility and a definite respect for women. The lessons in respecting women started with Scott’s sister. The Suicide Squad actor recalls a very specific event, when, at age 16, he took his sister to a party but, later in the evening, ended up leaving without her. Eastwood reveals that the public image of his father is pretty accurate and that Clint wasn’t at all one to avoid corporal punishment to make his point

“He popped me and said, ‘You don’t ever leave your sister at a party. EVER.’ And it was very old-school, very old-school of him. He wasn’t afraid. None of this new-age bullsh– where you can’t even smack the kid because everyone’s afraid of being judged or whatever,” explains Scott Eastwood. “That wasn’t the way that sh– went down in that family… If you did something wrong, you were going to get punished. I learnt quickly – you don’t do that.”

Scott shares that his father’s lessons have been permanently instilled in him for better or for worse, recalling his own words in berating a colleague for sub-par work and, at once, recognizing Clint’s voice in his head. Eastwood says, at that moment, he realized he was becoming his father. In Scott’s opinion, that’s what’s wrong with people today: no accountability. He says father Clint Eastwood had no problem speaking his mind and didn’t care whose feelings his harsh criticism might hurt.

“You know, a lot of people aren’t raised like that anymore,” Mr. Eastwood said. “Where someone is able to put them in check and say, ‘Hey, stop acting like an a——, get over here, this is a f—— job.’ That’s how my dad would’ve done it. There’s a little bit of that lacking in society today.”

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]