Entertainment | Celebrity

Clint Eastwood backs Mitt Romney for US president

The Oscar-winning director has endorsed the Republican presidential candidate, saying the US ‘needs a boost’

AP
Published: 12:48 August 4, 2012

Image Credit: AP
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2012 file photo, actor and director Clint Eastwood speaks with reporters during the opening of the Warner Bros. Theater at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington. Eastwood, the “Dirty Harry” star and Oscar-winning director of “Unforgiven” and “Million Dollar Baby”, endorsed the Republican presidential candidate Friday night, Aug. 3, 2012 during a Sun Valley fundraiser. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

Clint Eastwood just made Mitt Romney’s day.

The Dirty Harry star and Oscar-winning director of Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby endorsed the US Republican presidential candidate on Friday night during a Sun Valley fundraiser.

“I think the country needs a boost,” Eastwood said as he joined other Romney supporters for the private campaign event.

In February, Eastwood told Fox News that he wasn’t supporting any politician at that time. Some saw the “halftime in America” ad he made for the Super Bowl as a nod toward President Barack Obama. Eastwood responded then by saying he was not “politically affiliated” with the president.

“Now more than ever do we need Gov. Romney. I’m going to be voting for him,” Eastwood told Romney supporters on Friday night.

“He just made my day,” Romney said. “What a guy.”

Standing at Romney’s side, Eastwood said he was filming Mystic River in Massachusetts almost a decade ago when he first saw political advertisements featuring Romney, who was running for governor at the time.

“I said, God, this guy, he’s too handsome to be governor, but he does look like he could be president,” Eastwood joked. “As the years have gone by I began to think even more so about that.”

Eastwood, 82, said he hoped Romney would restore “a decent tax system that we need badly ... so that there’s a fairness and people are not pitted against one another as who’s paying taxes and who isn’t”.

The actor and director instantly became Romney’s highest-profile celebrity supporter. Romney has also earned the endorsement of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight and rock star Kid Rock.

A campaign spokesman could not immediately say whether Eastwood would play an active role in the campaign.

About 325 people paid as much as $25,000 (Dh91,801) apiece to attend the event. Eastwood is a part-time resident of Sun Valley.