The toughest interview for me ever to get was with Clint Eastwood (born 1930). My meetings with John Wayne and Sam Peckinpah were tough, but Clint was the toughest.

I had taught a course on Eastwood's films at a university where I spent my teaching career, and I took shots from some alumni who thought he wasn't a fit subject. Of course, he was. And, as time has passed, he has proven to be even more so.

I had tried for 30 years to get an interview. One time I called one of his people and played my trump card. I mentioned how well my interview with Wayne had gone. But my trump card was blown away.

“Mr. Eastwood hates John Wayne,” the man on the phone said curtly. Oops. I felt like collateral damage between two icons at high noon.

Intermittently I made further overtures–I sent Clint a book of poetry signed by Robinson Jeffers, the poet of Big Sur, Monterey, Carmel, and environs. But I imagine it never got to him; it probably wound up on eBay.

Finally, fate smiled. Rob Burke, one of my former students, had become vice president for marketing and creative services for Lakeshore International. Warner Bros. turned down Eastwood's project Million Dollar Baby, but when Lakeshore agreed to do it, Warner Bros. changed their mind and hastily signed on.