Clint Eastwood On Bizarre Obama Empty Chair Address: I Really Don’t Know How To Give Speeches
Sep. 7 2012, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
Clint Eastwood has opened up for the first time about the bizarre address that he gave at the Republican National Convention last week.
And the Dirty Harry actor reveals he deliberately didn’t give a prepared speech because: “I really don’t know how to.”
He told his local newspaper The Carmel Pine Cone on Friday: “They’ve got this crazy actor who’s 82 years old up there in a suit.
“I was a mayor and they’re probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.”
But this time the “talk” that Eastwood gave – mostly to an empty chair supposed to represent an invisible President Barack Obama – was before a 10,000-strong crowd and beamed live to millions around the world.
And while the actor’s comments made him the butt of jokes, he reveals the skit was all part of his master plan.
Eastwood says he came up with the empty chair idea backstage just minutes before he was due to go on stage.
He says: “There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down.
“When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea.
“I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”
Eastwood said the audience was “super enthusiastic” and that Mitt Romney’s team was pleased with his 12-minute address.
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He says the Republican presidential candidate and his running mate Paul Ryan came backstage to thank him.
He admits that he stumbled throughout the delivery, saying: “That’s what happens when you don’t have a written-out speech.”
Eastwood has harsh words for his critics saying they are “obviously on the left.”
Adding that he didn’t give a “scripted” speech “because I’m Joe Citizen” he said: “I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”
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