Eastwood has been a registered Republican since the 1950s but describes himself as a libertarian. He was appointed to an arts council by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, elected mayor of Carmel in the 1980s and was appointed to the California parks commission (and then fired from it) by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. None of this, he says, has anything to do with Callahan.
"There was a lot made about the politics of the film, and what my politics were -- imagined and real. A lot of people thought I was a renegade. Everyone drew these things into it. Maybe they were there. Maybe they were reading stuff into it that wasn't there. It's a role. That's the fun of being an actor, being something you weren't."
People ask him to autograph rifles, but Eastwood is no Charlton Heston. A vegan, he was distressed to hear Hillary Rodham Clinton boast recently about bagging a bird. "I was thinking: 'The poor duck, what the hell did she do that for?' I don't go for hunting. I just don't like killing creatures. Unless they're trying to kill me. Then that would be fine."
Eastwood said that he has a deep respect for due process and Miranda rights. But he added that there's a benefit to feeding the fantasies of frustrated cops. "It's gotten me out of a lot of speeding tickets through the years."
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