Clint Eastwood Says He Never Gave 'Entirely Phony' Interview

Legendary actor Clint Eastwood was widely quoted around his 95th birthday as taking a swipe at a Hollywood era of franchises and remakes.

The supposed interview ran in an Austrian news site called Kurier, according to a Reuters story that helped send it viral. It subsequently rocketed around the world, where it was cited by many reliable entertainment news sites.

But now it turns out that the interview is fake, according to comments Eastwood made on June 2.

Eastwood said in a statement to Deadline that the interview was completely phony.

“A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,” Eastwood said to Deadline. “I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I’ve turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.”

Kurier is a German-language site.

The wire service Reuters was among the sites that sent the Kurier article viral.

The "interview" claimed that Eastwood made comments lamenting the era of Hollywood remakes and speaking about his age and health as he hit 95.

"We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I've shot sequels three times, but I haven't been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home," Reuters claimed Eastwood told the Austrian site, but, of course, he now says he didn't say that at all.

"There's no reason why a man can't get better with age. And I have much more experience today. Sure, there are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I'm not one of them," Eastwood was also quoted as saying, according to Reuters, in another quote he disputes.