Clint Eastwood is one of the biggest and best-loved movie stars in the history of movies.
But it turns out Eastwood isn’t universally loved by his fellow actors.
And now Eddie Murphy has just revealed the name of this Hollywood icon who he claims secretly hated Clint Eastwood.
Eddie Murphy says The Godfather didn’t like Clint Eastwood
Stand-up comedy and film legend Eddie Murphy recently was on the New York Times podcast The Interview and talked about the time in 1982 he hung out with movie legend Marlon Brando.
The two-time Academy Award winner wanted to hang out with Murphy following Murphy’s breakout film role in 48 hours.
Murphy said when they were hanging out Brando commented that he couldn’t stand Clint Eastwood.
“This is how long ago it was: He was going, ‘I can’t stand that kid with the gun.’ I was like, ‘What kid with the gun?’ He said, ‘He’s on the poster!’” Murphy stated.
“I was like, ‘Clint Eastwood?’ ‘Yeah, that guy!’ He was calling Clint Eastwood ‘that kid,’” Murphy continued.
At the time, Eastwood was already 52 years old but according to Murphy Brando was still calling him a kid.
Murphy never went into exactly why Brando said he couldn’t stand Eastwood.
But most believe it stemmed from the two actors’ stark political differences.
Eastwood was one of Hollywood’s few openly conservative actors.
And Brando was a well-known leftist who supported Democrats for office and took a leading role in the civil rights movement.
In fact, at the 1973 Academy Awards, Brando refused to accept his Oscar for The Godfather in protest over the treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood.
Sacheen Littlefeather represented Brando instead.
This led to one of Hollywood’s most memorable Academy Awards shows as legendary actor John Wayne confronted Littlefeather and she falsely accused The Duke of attacking her.
To this day she still claims he “almost killed her” despite the overwhelming evidence nothing even close to a physical confrontation ever occurred.
Murphy spills the beans on his night with Brando
Brando became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars after his role as Stanley Kowalski in 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire.
He of course, would go on to star as Don Corleone in the classic 1972 film “The Godfather.”
In 1982, Murphy was an up-and-coming 21-year-old comic who became a star with his run on Saturday Night Live.
Murphy performed in sketches as an adult version of “The Little Rascals” character Buckwheat and in “Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood” – an urban spoof on “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.”
Murphy told The Interview that his night with Brando got off to a bad start as a mix up in scheduling left Brando waiting in his car 30 minutes for Murphy to come down from his hotel room.
“He came and picked me up at the hotel. But there was a time mix-up, and I came down like a half-hour late — he was waiting for me in the car,” Murphy stated.
Murphy said as soon as he got in the car with Brando, Brando began telling him that the acting profession was nonsense and that he was unimpressed with all the praise for The Godfather.
“He was like, ‘Eh, The Godfather.’ Not just ‘The Godfather’ — acting,” Murphy told the Times. “He was like, ‘Acting is bulls–t, and everybody can act.’”
“I was having these famous people that I grew up watching on television wanting to have a meal with me,” Murphy added.
“Now I look back and go, ‘Wow, that’s crazy. The greatest actor of all time wants to have dinner with you!’ But back then I just thought, ‘Well, that’s the way it is. You make a movie, and Marlon Brando calls,’” Murphy concluded.