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Clint Eastwood, who has a reputation of shoot-
ing a scene, getting it done and moving on to
the next one, rather than doing take after take.
What was your experience with him?
A. First of all, you're really excited to come
on the set every day because Clint Eastwood's
there. That never gets old. It was amazing.
But sometimes you do movies and you feel,
'Well, I'm warming up on the first three [takes],
and then we'll get into it on seven and eight, and
we'll sort of feel it out.' But that wasn't happen-
ing on this movie, at all. You better bring it, on
the first take. Clint will ask you how you feel and
if you want to move on.
He'll probably ask you why, and he'll either
say yes or no, do another one. But the truth is
there weren't any more than one or two takes
in this film, and then you move on. You have to
show up ready.
I learned that when I made two movies with
David O. Russell ("Silver Linings Playbook" and
"American Hustle"). With David, when you'd
step out of the van in the morning, you'd bet-
ter be able to shoot the scene from the
moment your foot touches the ground. So I'm
very well-equipped in that way, and have come
to love it, because there's an energy and a vital-
ity and a sense of it's actually happening. I think
if I ever get a chance to direct, I would always
want to do that. You know, never make them
feel that they have a hundred takes; make them
feel like this is it.
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Winter Oaks 24"x36" by Stephen McMillan
Cooper packed on muscle through weight training and learned how to precisely handle
three sniper rifles with live ammo to portray Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
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