Clint Eastwood says viral interview was a fake: ‘Entirely phony'

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Clint Eastwood is denying he spoke to an Austrian publication that quoted the actor as saying he had no plans to retire as he bemoaned the current state of Hollywood.

Published in the German-language Austrian newspaper Kurier, and translated by PEOPLE, Fox News, Deadline, Variety and Reuters, among others, Eastwood, who turned 95 over the weekend, purportedly lamented Hollywood’s love of sequels and franchises.

But in a statement to Deadline, the four-time Oscar winner said the story was complete fiction.

“A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,” Eastwood said in a statement released to Deadline. “I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I’ve turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.”

In passages that were picked up and reported worldwide, the paper quoted Eastwood as saying in an interview that he longed “for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like Casablanca.”

“We live in an era of remakes and franchises. 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,” the quote continued.

The paper also quoted the father of eight as saying that one of the keys to his longevity was the fact that he wasn’t afraid to take on new challenges.

“I didn’t repeat myself, I didn’t always make the same kind of film, I always tried something new. A new genre, a different role.” 

In a statement obtained by The Guardian on Tuesday afternoon, Kurier’s editor, Martin Gebhart, said the quotes attributed to Eastwood weren’t fabricated and that the reporter, Elisabeth Sereda, had “convincingly explained that she had spoken to Eastwood 18 times at round tables.”

But Gebhart said that writing an article that cobbled together quotes from past interviews didn’t meet the newspaper’s “quality standards.”

“Even though no quotes were fabricated, the interviews are documented, and the accusation of fabrication can be refuted, we will no longer work with the author in the future because transparency and our strict editorial standards are paramount to us,” he said.

In an additional statement posted to Kurier’s Instagram, saying “the interview was obviously neither fictitious nor fake.”

“The interview published in the Kurier was a best-of from her conversations with the star,” the outlet’s statement read. “In this recently published article, she unfortunately did not clarify that it was not a current interview, but rather a summary.”

In an email to the New York Times, Sereda said that she was hired by Kurier to write a “best-of” compilation from her interviews with Eastwood in honour of his recent 95th birthday.

“While Mister Eastwood may not be familiar with the publication Kurier, he is certainly familiar with the H.F.P.A. — having given more than 20 interviews to the group dating back to 1976,” she said. 

According to The Guardian,  Kurier has published several interviews written by Sereda featuring names like Pamela Anderson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jude Law.

A source close to Law said no interview between the Fantastic Beasts star and the U.S.-based Austrian journalist, who is a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, had taken place.

Eastwood’s most recent film, last year’s legal thriller Juror #2, had been widely thought to be his last as a filmmaker.

mdaniell@postmedia.com