Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood is making one thing very clear: He did not threaten to kill Michael Moore. Following the current success of the box office smash American Sniper , Michael Moore has taken to social media and interviews to criticize the movie. In Moore’s criticism, he also recounted an occurrence where he alleges that Eastwood threatened to kill him.
Moore brought this allegation back into the spotlight back in January of this year, when he penned a lengthy Facebook post about the event. Moore recounts that he was a bit shocked to hear Eastwood say “he would ‘kill’ me if I ever came to his house with my camera for an interview.”
Moore also added, “I was a bit stunned to hear Eastwood, out of the blue, make such a violent statement. But I instantly decided he was just trying to be funny.”
Eastwood has tried to clear up the confusion during the CinemaCon expo in Las Vegas , saying, “Everyone kept saying I was going to kill Michael Moore but that’s not true,” adding to laughter from the crowd, “It isn’t a bad idea.”
Eastwood stands firm that he never made such a statement about the documentary filmmaker, but he did state where he believes the rumor may have started from.
“I think once years ago somebody asked me what would I do if a guy like him came to my house with a whole film crew and started filming away like he did with Charlton Heston. Unfortunately, Charlton Heston was ill at the time with Alzheimer’s. But I thought if somebody was on your property, you could shoot him.”
Eastwood also added in jest, “I think about the line, ‘get off my lawn.’”
Eastwood, who has faced controversy in the past for his political views, seems to be taking this with a grain of salt, and believes that Moore is just as entitled to his opinion as everyone else.
“I’m all for [anyone expressing] what their attitudes are. That’s what is great about this country. You can say whatever you want and nobody has to agree with you,” Eastwood said.”He was just expressing an opinion.”
Moore has been very vocal with his displeasure of American Sniper , saying that the movie rewrites history and that it glorifies war. Eastwood has been on the record as saying that he is against war and feels that the movie does convey that message as well.
Michael Moore and Clint Eastwood may never agree on the events in dispute, but needless to say it has certainly made for some interesting Hollywood drama.