Trouble With The Curve
To celebrate Monday’s DVD release of Trouble with the Curve, starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake, we wanted to take a look back at Clint’s illustrious career and to look at some of the talent he has nurtured.
Trouble with the Curve marks the directorial debut of Robert Lorenz, who has worked with Clint for a number of years.
He began his career as an assistant director 'always with the intention of directing' but the lure and support of working with Clint Eastwood meant that he delayed his own ambitions saying 'just about the time I was ready to move on he asked me to start producing. So it was hard to say no to that.'
Clint worked closely with Robert on a number of films, including The Bridges of Madison County, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby where he was an Assistant Director, and then was Clint’s Producer on Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, Hereafter and J.Edgar.
Clint always supported Robert’s career progression and said 'He was promoted in the middle of a picture, from a trainee to a second assistant and then became first assistant, and then he just came up the line.'
After having put his own career ambitions on hold whilst working alongside Clint as a director, he jumped at the chance to get Clint involved when he had the opportunity to direct himself. Clint said 'when he brought me this script I thought this was a perfect opportunity for Rob to direct, I’ll just play a part, something I haven’t done for 20 years.'
Although Robert and Clint obviously have a special bond, Robert took Clint’s advice and guidance to ensure that he learnt his craft in the best way. He said 'Clint is a real actor’s director and being an actor himself, he knows what actors are thinking about and the tricks that get them to deliver the performance that he wants, so I learned a lot from him with regards to that.
'He was always pointing out to me what actors were trying to do in a particular scene and so forth and what was on their mind.'
Although working together had always been Robert’s dream, he didn’t find it all smooth sailing working alongside Clint, 'I think it was as challenging for him to hold back and not get involved in every aspect as it was for me to have to deal with such an intimidating presence.
'I mean, Clint is my friend, I have known him for so many years, you know, it’s just easy but he came to set with his own ideas about how certain scenes were gonna be staged and shot and acted and sometimes they weren’t the same ideas I had.'
Despite differences in some cases, ultimately Robert said 'for the most part, we were completely in sync on what we wanted out of the scene.'
For the most-part though Robert’s film directing debut really showed the hallmarks of his close collaboration and working alongside Clint for long periods of time.
Clint said of the film 'He did a terrific job. He had his own ideas and he knows his stuff.'
Robert was enamoured with the way that Clint has helped and guided him through the years saying 'Observing the way Clint worked taught me to really embrace the collaboration aspect of the process and let everybody else and let everybody else contribute.
'He has the confidence to let people; creative crew that are collaborating with him and the actors, come in and do their thing and find their way.'
To see the results of their collaboration for yourself, check out Trouble with the Curve out on DVD now.
Tagged in Clint Eastwood