In Hollywood, there haven’t been many feuds, but the ones that exist (or existed) have been nothing short of epic. And among all the names on this list, Clint Eastwood has a place as well. Apparently, the mastermind 94-year-old filmmaker had an alleged fight with his peer and 67-year-old director Spike Lee around a decade and a half ago.
While Eastwood has maintained his high profile throughout his legendarily carved-out career both in front of and behind the lenses, he was called out on his filmmaking skills by Lee in a rather unprecedented manner, which escalated to the point where Steven Spielberg had to intervene. And, curiously enough, Eastwood actually came clean about it all.
Clint Eastwood Had an Alleged Feud With Spike Lee
Back in the early 2000s, when Flags of Our Fathers and its sequel Letters from Iwo Jima came out, the former was met with mixed reviews while the latter even went on to secure two Oscar nods to Clint Eastwood for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Achievement in Directing. But, even then, one of his peers seemed to be anything but pleased with him.
This peer was Spike Lee, who reportedly didn’t hesitate to point out that the Gran Torino star failed to include any black soldiers in his Second World War movie. This, apparently, didn’t sit well with Eastwood, whose response was that the history depicted in the film in itself was accurate, with his comment for Lee being, “a guy like that should shut his face.”
As bad as it seems, this wasn’t all. While the public comments shared back and forth during interviews between this duo was one thing, fellow director Steven Spielberg also had to seemingly intervene between them. This happened when what seemed like a playground argument was tried to tone down by adding a third party to mend the fences.
According to reports from Far Out Magazine, Spielberg was asked by Lee to extend an olive branch on his behalf between the two and settle the issues by filling in the communication gap. To this, Spielberg’s reported response was that he would “call Clint and tell him in the morning.” And so he did, considering how Eastwood later went on to call Lee “a nice guy.”
Clint Eastwood Claimed Spike Lee is “A Nice Guy” While Addressing Feud Rumors
Around a year after all of this took place, the Unforgiven star got into an interview with The Guardian where he was asked to address this very issue at hand. During this, Eastwood came clean about it all and revealed that what was being portrayed as a “tiff” by the media was actually nothing more than something close to a misunderstanding.
Addressing the issue first, Eastwood said:
It wasn’t really a tiff. I was in Cannes and somebody said that he was quoted saying this and that. Some journalist. And I said, well if he said that… and I shot my mouth off.
Continuing, he then went on to praise his fellow peer filmmaker while sharing the thoughts that went through his own head as he did so.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly star candidly said:
But he’s a nice guy. I think Spike was just trying to promote his flick. I understand the game. I just thought I wasn’t going to let him off the hook.
Well, to say he “wasn’t going to let him off the hook” sounds like the most accurate depiction of what Eastwood was going to do, judging from the initial response he had for Lee. But, then again, Spielberg intervened, and considering how Clint Eastwood even went on to praise Spike Lee, things seemingly cooled down before matters took a turn for the worse.