Movies - TV
Clint Eastwood Had To Fight To Make The Man With No Name A Mystery
By JEREMY SMITH
Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns launched Clint Eastwood into stardom with his iconic role as the Man with No Name featured in the Dollars trilogy. The character is a man of few words, which some might have attributed to a language barrier Leone faced; however, it was Eastwood who insisted that the stoic Man with No Name remain shrouded in mystery.
According to Eastwood, the original screenplay that Leone wrote with Victor Andrés Catena and Jaime Comas saw a more talkative protagonist. The actor shared, “I wanted to play it with an economy of dialogue and to build a whole feeling through attitude and movements. So I said to Sergio, ‘Let’s keep the mystery of the character and just allude to what happened in the past.’”
While Leone argued with Eastwood, he eventually came around and made the changes, much to the producers’ dismay. Eastwood claimed they said, “Christ, this guy isn’t doing anything. He isn’t saying anything. He doesn’t even have a name!” However, Leone’s character changes saved the Western genre from its decline and made Eastwood a global star.