Clint Eastwood Once Threatened to Kill Michael Moore – Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
Clint Eastwood, director of the “American Sniper” biopic on the life of Chris Kyle, threatened to kill fellow director Michael Moore at an awards dinner held in 2005.
The Truth:
Clint Eastwood did in fact threaten to kill Michael Moore at the 2005 National Board of Review awards dinner, but Eastwood’s threat was taken as an off-colored joke at the time.
The story resurfaced in January of 2015 after Michael Moore tweeted that he’d been taught to believe that all snipers were cowards:
My uncle was killed by a sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the Back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.
Moore’s tweet came days after Clint Eastwood’s biopic “American Sniper” broke box office records. The film detailed the life of Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who is regarded as the deadliest sniper in military history. In the face of a public backlash, Moore said that he made the comment on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day because the civil rights activist had been killed by a sniper — not in response to Eastwood’s blockbuster hit.
Still, the perceived spat between Michael Moore and Clint Eastwood led the website MRCTV to revisit the 2005 National Board of Review awards dinner in an article that quickly earned more than 100,000 views:
At the National Board Review dinner in 2005, Moore and Eastwood were both present, being honored on behalf of their films, “Bowling for Columbine,” and “Million Dollar Baby.”
Clint Eastwood accepted his award, and said the following, “Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common – we both appreciate living in a country where there’s free expression,”
Then came the . . . joke.
“But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera – I’ll kill you.”
The audience laughed, Moore laughed, then Eastwood said,
“I mean it…”
The exchange really happened, and media outlets light-heartedly covered it at the time. Clint Eastwood was at the dinner to accept an award for “Million Dollar Baby” and Michael Moore was there to be honored for “Fahrenheit 9/11” (the eRumor incorrectly reported that Moore was being honored for “Bowling for Columbine”), the New York Daily News reports.
Michael Moore later reflected on the incident in a column on Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention hat was published by the Daily Beast. Moore admitted that Eastwood’s comments “creeped me out a bit.” Moore continues:
A few years ago, at the annual National Board of Review film awards held at Tavern on the Green in New York, I was there to hand out one of the honors. When it came time for Eastwood to accept his, he went up to the microphone and growled to me in front of the audience, “If you ever show up at my house with that camera, I’ll shoot you on sight.” The audience laughed, I laughed, but the person who issued the threat wasn’t laughing. That creeped me out a bit. I made sure never to go stand on Clint Eastwood’s lawn.