Clint Eastwood Explains His 'Silly' Chair Stunt

Says he heard Neil Diamond song before going on stage
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2016 6:03 AM CDT
Clint Eastwood Explains His 'Silly' Chair Stunt
Clint Eastwood presents the hero award at the Guys Choice Awards at Sony Pictures Studios on June 4, 2016, in Culver City, Calif.   (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Clint Eastwood hasn't made this many political headlines since he famously spoke to an empty chair. They stem from an interview in Esquire with him and son Scott in which he rails against the "pussy generation" (more than once) in regard to Donald Trump—and also explains why he pulled what he describes as his "silly" chair stunt at the 2012 GOP convention:

  • Trump: "He's onto something, because secretly 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 pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist." Later, he adds that people should "just f---ing get over it."

  • The chair: Eastwood says he was standing backstage listening to speech after speech about how Mitt Romney was a great guy and wanted to be different. "And so I'm listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he's going, 'And no one heard at all / Not even the chair.' And I'm thinking, That's Obama. He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. ... You're the top guy. ... It's the same with every company in this country, whether it's a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company. … And that's the pussy generation—nobody wants to work."
Click to read the full interview. (More Clint Eastwood stories.)

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