As he approaches his 95th birthday this weekend, Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood has urged fellow filmmakers to focus on creating new and original ideas. The Oscar-winning director and actor reflected on his own career, noting that he plans to continue working because he feels in good physical shape and hopeful that he won’t need to worry about his health "for a long time yet." His latest film, the legal drama Juror #2, was released in the U.S. last year, and he is reportedly in pre-production for another project.
When asked about the state of Hollywood today, Eastwood — famous for classics like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Dirty Harry, as well as directing acclaimed films such as Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby — lamented the lack of fresh ideas. He reminisced about the "good old days" when screenwriters crafted original stories like Casablanca in small studios, emphasizing that everyone had new ideas back then.
"We live in an era of remakes and franchises," he said. "I’ve shot sequels three times, but I haven’t been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home."
Eastwood also shared his secret to staying energetic: he believes that age can bring improvement if one continues to learn.
"There’s no reason why a man can’t get better with age," he stated.
He credited his success to always trying something new as both a director and actor, recalling how working under studio contracts in his early days forced him to learn constantly.
"I’ll work as long as I can still learn something or until I’m truly senile," he added confidently.
