Clint Eastwood Explains RNC Empty Chair Stunt

by UInterviewSeptember 7, 2012, 12:00 amNews >

It’s been a week since Clint Eastwood’s infamous empty chair rant at the Republican National Convention, and just as the dust has begun to settle, Eastwood is speaking out.

“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood, 82, told his local newspaper, the Carmel Pine Cone. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”

Eastwood, who says he arrived at the RNC less than a half hour before he was supposed to go on, maintained that he did not have a written speech and did not have a specific plan for what to say, despite the requests of Romney’s aids. He could only guarantee that he would be positive toward Romney.

“They vet most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood revealed. The actor/director apparently received inspiration for his empty-chair act only moments before he went on stage.

“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.”

The former mayor of Carmel, Calif., Eastwood revealed he has never been adept at giving speeches and also has difficulty working with teleprompters, which both contributed to his impromptu presentation. While President Obama brushed off the Eastwood incident earlier in the week by praising the actor's films (“I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan,” he told ABC News), Eastwood only offered harsh words about the President.

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

Ryan Paul, Romney and Eastwood, who spoke at Romney's request, all reportedly enjoyed the speech.

“They were very enthusiastic, and we were all laughing.”