The Hardest Outlaw
I Ever Met

They don't make them like Clint Eastwood anymore. A mysterious kind of movie star, you never know where you stand with him. His silence and stoicism inspire fear and anxiety in everyone, be they allies or antagonists. A lone wolf in every sense of the word, Eastwood embodied both the light and dark sides of heroism.

Take his 1976 western, The Outlaw Josey Wales, for instance. It's a revisionist western at its finest, following a Missouri farmer who turns to vengeance after raiders murder his family, and who spends the rest of the film on the run, with a bounty on his head and a strange family of strays gathering around him.

Josey Wales is quintessential antiheroism. Even as you root for him to carry on, you know that what he's doing isn't all good.

Only a star like Clint Eastwood can take you through those mental gymnastics. His characters were never the cookie-cutter good-guy type. There's always something behind that sinister squint. And like I said earlier, you never truly know where you stand with him, regardless of your role in the story.

And to be honest, that's not too far from how he is in real life. He's so much like his characters, from Josey Wales to Dirty Harry, that even as a fan, I didn't know where I stood when I interacted with him. His face was just as much a puzzle in person.

I met him at the New York premiere of his 2016 film, Sully, at Alice Tully Hall on September 6. The film had its world premiere days earlier at the 43rd Telluride Film Festival, and in New York he stood alongside his star, Tom Hanks, and Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger himself. It was a New York night full of legends.

Even at the risk of annoying him, I still brought two movie posters I wanted him to sign. The first was Sully, which I got that same day, and the second was a fairly new copy of The Outlaw Josey Wales movie poster.

I'll never forget when he got to me as he interacted with fans on the red carpet. I asked him to sign my posters, and as I showed them, his face hardened. I'm not kidding when I say it was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life. I nearly froze as I handed him both posters. But he still signed them anyway.

My mood only improved when I met Tom Hanks right after. He was such a delight. Hanks truly is that pleasant and personable in real life, and meeting him and getting his autograph cheered me up instantly. If not for him, my mind wouldn't have gotten over how confused I was about Clint Eastwood.

Still, the legendary movie star signed both posters, and it's a feat I doubt many others can achieve. Regardless of how scared I was that night, I still look at it pretty fondly. It's not every day you get to meet an actual screen legend, after all.