Political correctness, according to legendary film director and actor Clint Eastwood, is suffocating the entertainment industry.
Eastwood, speaking to a crowd at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Sunday, according to The Hollywood Reporter, shared the assertion during the 25th anniversary screening of his 1992 Oscar-winning movie, “Unforgiven.” He said the United States’ obsession with political correctness began around the same time as the release of his 1971 film, “Dirty Harry.”
“It was far-out at that time, so I brought it to Don , and he liked it,” Eastwood said. “A lot of people thought it was politically incorrect. That was at the beginning of the era that we’re in now with political correctness.
“We are killing ourselves, we’ve lost our sense of humor,” he continued. “But I thought it was interesting and it was daring.”
The Hollywood icon condemned political correctness during his introduction of the “Unforgiven” screening when he took questions from Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan.
“I thought I’d just sit through the first five minutes, but after a while I thought, ‘This isn’t so bad, so maybe I’ll stay for it,’” Eastwood said of the screening. “I enjoyed it. I saw a lot of things that I’d forgotten.”
Eastwood, who considers himself a libertarian, has not been shy when it comes to politics. In fact, in 1986, he served for two years as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He also endorsed 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain and 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Eastwood delivered a speech during which he famously spoke to an empty chair, which symbolized then-President Barack Obama. The skit was intended to highlight Eastwood’s perception that Obama wasn’t following through on his promises or doing enough for the American people.
More recently, Eastwood told Esquire in August 2016 that then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was enjoying so much success because “everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up.”
“That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a p***y generation,” he said at the time. “Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff.”
Eastwood is currently working on “The 15:17 to Paris,” a Warner Bros. film chronicling the heroic acts of three American friends who thwarted a terrorist attack on a train traveling from Brussels to Paris in 2015.
