Clint Eastwood has been an iconic actor ever since he stepped foot in Hollywood. With several action movies to his name, veteran director Martin Scorsese once refused to direct a film which he thought was too similar to one of Eastwood’s offerings.
Talking about the classic 1984 movie Beverly Hills Cop, the movie saw a plethora of directors and actors rejecting the movie. One of these rejections was from Martin Scorsese who felt that the plot was too similar to one of Clint Eastwood’s iconic movies.

Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop
When Martin Scorsese Rejected A Movie Because of Clint Eastwood!
Back in 1984, director Martin Brest released the buddy cop action-comedy movie Beverly Hills Cop. With a plot of Axel Foley helping a murder investigation and things going south (in a hilarious way), the movie received quite great reviews.
Clint Eastwood in Coogan’s Bluff (1968)
Also read: Steven Spielberg’s Favorite War Film Starring Clint Eastwood Got Made Due To Elizabeth Taylor’s Children
During the production and writing of the movie, Martin Scorsese was considered as a director of the film. As per the book, Martin Scorsese: A Biography, the director read the plot of the movie and rejected the offer. The director revealed that he felt the concept of Beverly Hills Cop was too similar to Clint Eastwood’s 1968 film Coogan’s Bluff. After Scorsese, David Cronenberg also turned down the movie.
Instead of Eddie Murphy, several actors such as Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, and James Caan were also considered for the role. It was Murphy who brought in the humor and a comedic element in the movie which made the movie unique. As for Clint Eastwood, the veteran actor had to go through some disgusting acts just for starring in a role.
Clint Eastwood Had To Smoke Cigars For His Role!
Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name in the Dollars trilogy
Portraying the iconic role of Man with No Name, Clint Eastwood worked alongside Italian director Sergio Leone on The Dollars Trilogy. Becoming famous with his on-screen role, Eastwood had to grab some cigars for a shot but Eastwood revealed to The Independent (via Far Out) that he felt like throwing up.
“I went out and bought a bunch of cigars that I thought would look good in a western. I had no idea they’d taste so vile. But I brought those along with me and I gave them to props and we cut them all up.”
Eastwood further continued that when Sergio Leone wasn’t satisfied with a single take, he said to the director,
“You better get it this time, because I’m going to throw up”.
Despite his character being known for smoking cigars, Clint Eastwood never smoked in real life and hated it. As for the film that was too similar to Eastwood’s Coogan’s Bluff, Beverly Hills Cop received a rating of 7.4/10 on IMDB and 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

We have a bit of a rule that whenever a Hollywood legend like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne has dished out advice on cinema, we listen to it. So what happens when the two great icons of the Western genre disagree on filmmaking? Well, that gives us a bit of a conundrum.
In this case, Clint Eastwood and John Wayne don’t see eye to eye when it comes to… eyes. They’ve both made some of the best Westerns in the history of cinema, but Wayne fundamentally believes you always need to be able to see an actor’s eyes for a scene to work. Eastwood, who is still churning out impressive new movies into his 90s, is not so sure.
“In a lot of those old movies, there’s light all over the place and there’s no contrast. But you really don’t have to see everything,” Eastwood told the DGA Quarterly Magazine. “John Wayne had this theory that you had to see the eyes all the time, the eyes tell the story. I never believed that.”
Eastwood referenced Jack Green and Tom Stern’s lighting for his 1992 Oscar-winner Unforgiven as a great example of an exception to Wayne’s rule. We adore Unforgiven, which is one of the best movies in the history of big-screen Westerns, and so we find it hard to disagree with the man behind making the masterpiece.

He continued: “You see the eyes when you need to see the eyes. And sometimes, what you don’t see is very appealing to the audience. You can dramatize a picture with shades of light.”
Eastwood singled out Westerns of the past for being particularly guilty of over-lighting scenes. He said: “I like getting on a realistic plane with the light. If you go back and look at some Westerns that were made by some of the most beloved directors of the 1930s and ’40s, you see people walk from the outdoors into a brightly lit room and you wonder: ‘Where’d they get all that electricity back in 1850?’”
The best Clint Eastwood movies, especially those of the last few decades, have certainly taken a more realistic approach to Western stories than the classics of the past. In Unforgiven, especially, it pays off.
We can’t wait to see what Eastwood brings us with Juror #2, which will be his next film. If the man himself is to be believed, it’s also very likely to be his last movie. He’ll definitely want to go out with a bang, and we have the utmost faith in him.
For more on one of Hollywood’s best actors ever, find out why Clint Eastwood is Morgan Freeman’s favorite director and learn why Clint Eastwood regrets this Western. Finally, read our piece exploring how the Western has always been a genre for women too.

Clint Eastwood is one of Hollywood’s most skilled directors, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t acted in several iconic films as well. This included his legendary role as Blondie in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. That said, there is one factor in Sergio Leone’s films that was almost as important to the story as Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood has also been part of other iconic films such as Dirty Harry,  A Fistful of Dollars, and many more iconic projects. That said, there is no doubt just how dedicated he has been to all of his films so far in his career.

Clint Eastwood

The One Factor That Was Crucial To Sergio Leone Movies Almost As Much As Clint Eastwood
Sergio Leone’s distinctive style allowed for more time and space for music in his films, enabling a deeper collaboration with composers like Ennio Morricone. Naturally, one can’t imagine Leone without Clint Eastwood either.

Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood

While speaking in an interview with Jon Burlingame & Gary Crowdus, Ennio Morricone emphasized the importance of the director’s choice in allocating time for music. He stated that even ten seconds of audible music when well-placed, can be a more effective collaboration than ten minutes drowned out by dialogue or action.
“Sergio Leone allowed a lot more time and space for music; that was his stylistic choice. And since there was more music, people heard more music. And if they heard more music, they noticed it more. And if they noticed it more, they were able to assimilate it more. This is a sign that is very important to a composer, because now he finds himself collaborating on a more intense level and his music becomes an integral part of the film itself. I will make a very simple, paradoxical statement. If a director gives a composer ten seconds of time, he cannot be heard and therefore cannot collaborate with the director.
However, if a director gives ten minutes of time, the composer can express himself properly. If the ten minutes that you have been given can be heard, and it is not drowned out by either the dialog between the characters or the special effects and action – which distract the public from the music – then the music will be appreciated. However, if in those ten minutes you cannot even begin to hear any musical expression, because of the dialog or action taking place at the same time, the music is completely destroyed. Therefore, ten seconds of music, if it can be heard, is a far better collaboration between director and composer than ten minutes of music which has been stifled by other factors within the film. The final decision of whether to hear the music or not remains in the hands of the director. If the director believes that the music serves a function as a dramatic and expressive form, then the music will be heard; if not, then it will not be heard. This is not a fault; we must always keep in mind Sergio Leone as the central character in this question.”
He made it clear that the director’s decision on whether the music serves a dramatic purpose ultimately determines its impact, with Morricone highlighting Sergio Leone as a pivotal figure in this dynamic relationship.
Clint Eastwood Didn’t Want To Do The Good, The Bad and The Ugly At First
By the mid-1960s, Clint Eastwood had already established himself in the Western genre as a bonafide star and was looking for new challenges in his career. When originally asked to appear in the film, he declined for several reasons.

Clint Eastwood

One factor was Eastwood’s disappointment in sharing the screen with two established actors, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. He wasn’t really happy about Wallach’s character being given the best dialogues. In addition to that, Eastwood was offered lesser pay, as his status as a major star in the United States wasn’t really established then.
Thankfully, the producers were eager to have Eastwood on board for the film. Therefore, they offered him a $250,000 salary, 10% of the profits and a new Ferrari 275 GTB. In the end, Eastwood accepted and the rest is history.