Clint Eastwood made a foray into politics four years ago, when, on stage during the 2012 Republican National Convention, he harangued an empty chair. This time, he is leaving furniture out of it and appealing directly to those voters who may find former reality TV star and current Republican candidate Donald Trump to be offensive.
Eastwood’s advice is colorful, to say the least, and certainly NSFW. Consider yourself warned.
During an interview with Esquire magazine, Eastwood called out what he called the “p***y generation” and said that if anyone is offended by Trump’s history of overtly racist remarks, they should simply “just f***ing get over it.”
Eastwood says Trump is “onto something” because he is “just saying what’s on his mind.” Even so, Eastwood acknowledged that Trump’s method is often flawed.
“And sometimes it’s not so good,” Eastwood said. “And sometimes it’s… I mean, I can understand where he’s coming from, but I don’t always agree with it.”
Eastwood explained his point of view further.
“You know, he’s a racist now because he’s talked about this judge. And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something. He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody—the press and everybody’s going, ‘Oh, well, that’s racist,’ and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.”
Clint Eastwood also takes issue with political correctness, something that Trump has bemoaned along the campaign trail.
“I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct,” Donald Trump said. “I’ve been challenged by so many people and I don’t, frankly, have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either.”
Clint Eastwood agrees.
“[S]ecretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a p***y generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino , even my associate said, ‘This is a really good script, but it’s politically incorrect.’ And I said, ‘Good. Let me read it tonight.’ The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, ‘We’re starting this immediately.’”
Gran Torino was about a racist old man named Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood. Walt is a Korean war veteran, disgusted by his weak adult children and with no affection for his grandchildren. He’s a retired autoworker and a deeply racist man, incapable of interacting with a non-white person without openly racial epithets.
Eastwood says he plans to vote for Trump. However, the decision to do so was a “tough one,” he stated, and he has not endorsed the Republican presidential candidate.
And he certainly didn’t show up on stage at the RNC with his now infamous empty chair “Barrack Obama.” And speaking of that 2012 speech, Eastwood explained the reasoning behind it to the Huffington Post .
After a series of speeches spent praising then-Republican-nominee Mitt Romney, Eastwood felt he needed to do something different and decided to take creative license. His speech , Eastwood said, was inspired by an old Neil Diamond song.
“And so I’m listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he’s going, ‘And no one heard at all / Not even the chair.’ And I’m thinking, That’s Obama . He doesn’t go to work. He doesn’t go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell’s he doing sitting in the White House?”
Eastwood’s next film, Sully , opens in September. The movie stars Tom Hanks as “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.
[Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images]