Clint Eastwood does not yell "Action!" Ever. There's no "Roll it!" or "Cut!" either. There's no yelling, period. If you're on his crew, you use your inside voice. It's a key component of the World of Clint - the zen oasis that is an Eastwood movie set. For one of our most iconic tough-guy film stars, he's shockingly mellow as a director and producer.
Not that he's a pushover, of course. It's hard to imagine anyone who'd want to mess with Dirty Harry, even at 78. It's simply that in the nearly four decades he's been directing movies, he's figured out how to get things done without making himself, or anyone else, insane in the process.
Over the years, he's developed enduring relationships with crew members, who come back to work with him time and again. They know how to make movies his way, and he knows how to foster an environment that keeps everyone feeling good. And get them home for dinner.
He has his own production company, Malpaso, named for a creek in Carmel, Calif., where he lives on an expansive ranch (and, for two years in the '80s, was the mayor). Malpaso is renowned in the industry for its small, efficient staff and lack of pretension.
"He's just the classiest, most elegant, coolest man there is," gushes actor Jason Butler Harner, who plays serial killer Gordon Northcott in Eastwood's new movie, "Changeling." "He hires people around him who he trusts and he's worked with his whole career. The stunt man, Buddy Van Horn, worked with him in westerns in the '60s, and is, like, 80 years old."