Reuters withdrew its coverage of an interview with filmmaker and actor Clint Eastwood Tuesday after he disputed its authenticity as incendiary quotes about his age and the state of Hollywood began making the rounds online.
“A story describing an interview with Clint Eastwood has been withdrawn,” the news organization said. “Reuters picked up the story from Kurier, an Austrian newspaper, which subsequently said the article fell short of its standards. There will be no substitute.”
The interview in question was originally published Friday. In it, Eastwood gave a collection of remarks in a Q&A format about his career, life and Hollywood. After a number of the interview’s quotes went viral, Eastwood publicly disputed its authenticity on Monday, calling it “entirely phony” and claiming that he had not sat down for an interview anytime recently with a Kurier journalist.
Kurier subsequently clarified that the Hollywood legend’s quotes were real but had not come from a single interview. They were, instead, remarks he had made in 14 interviews he’d given in previous years to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes voting body of which the article’s author, Elisabeth Sereda, is a member.
The journalists present at these interviews are typically provided with transcripts of the conversations, which they are allowed to use as they see fit. In honor of Eastwood’s 95th birthday on May 31, Sereda aggregated Eastwood’s best quotes from these HFPA interviews into one piece for Kurier. The Austrian publication, however, did not clarify the way in which the Q&A came together.
“The article was formatted as an interview, not a portrait. This was intended to create the impression that it was a new interview,” Kurier editor-in-chief Martin Gebhart wrote in a response published Tuesday. “The fact that this wasn’t the case is not in keeping with the quality standards the Kurier maintains.”
“Even though no quote is fabricated, the interviews are documented, and the allegation of falsification can be refuted, we will no longer work with the author in the future,” Gebhart added. “Transparency and our strict editorial standards are paramount to us.”
In an email sent to the New York Times, Sereda said she was part of the HFPA for 14 of Eastwood’s interviews with the organization and that she was asked by Kurier to write a “best-of” compilation of quotes taken from those conversations. “While Mister Eastwood may not be familiar with the publication Kurier, he is certainly familiar with the HFPA — having given more than 20 interviews to the group dating back to 1976,” Sereda wrote in her email.
Nonetheless, Kurier’s link to the original article now redirects automatically to Gebhart’s response. Reuters, meanwhile, has not only pulled its coverage of the interview but also issued an update declaring that it will be not be substituted with a correction or new article.
Several of Eastwood’s quotes in the original article went viral online. In it, the filmmaker was quoted as saying at one point, “There are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I’m not one of them.” Elsewhere in the piece, he offered his opinion of Hollywood, stating, “We live in an era of remakes and franchises.” He was also quoted offering a piece of advice to other filmmakers, remarking, “My philosophy is: Do something new or stay at home.”
Representatives for Eastwood did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for additional comment.
