"I began to direct my own films in 1970. At that time the only means I had to be able to direct was to act in the films . . . . It was a practical question at the time. Afterwards, I grew to like it."

As a star, Clint Eastwood is recalled primarily for two early roles--the "Man With No Name" of three European-made Westerns and "Dirty" Harry Callahan, the uncompromising cop who spoke softly and carried a big gun in five movies. But like few other stars, Eastwood has shaped his own career by appearing almost exclusively in films he produced or co-produced, frequently under his own direction. No other contemporary dramatic star has directed himself so often.
His acclaim as a director began in the late '70s and reached a peak with the 1992 release of his Oscar-winning Unforgiven. Eastwood has steered a remarkable course as an independent filmmaker. He is a film industry insider who works through the established Hollywood system, yet he remains an outsider by steadfastly refusing to heed cultural and aesthetic trends in film production and film style. Films he has directed have examined artists' lives (Honkytonk Man, 1982; Bird, 1988; White Hunter, Black Heart, 1990) and called into question his own star image (The Gauntlet, 1977; Bronco Billy, 1980; Unforgiven, 1992) while remaining accessible to a popular audience.
The interviews collected here range over the nearly three decades of Eastwood's directorial career. Their emphasis is on practical filmmaking issues and on his philosophy of filmmaking. Nearly half are from British and European sources. The latter, appearing in English for the first time, show how Europeans were praising him as a director while many American critics had not yet acknowledged him as an actor of merit.

Robert E. Kapsis, author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation, is a professor of sociology and film studies at Queens College, CUNY. Since 1995 he has been executive producer of American Film Masters. Kathie Coblentz is a special collections cataloger at The New York Public Library. She also works on the American Film Masters series.