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MOVIE: The Mule

STARS: Clint Eastwood, Laurence Fishburne, Dianne West, Alison Eastwood DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood RATING: R

IT TOOK a special script to get Clint Eastwood back in front of the camera for the first time in six years.

The screen legend stars in and directs The Mule, a crime film based on Sam Dolnick’s New York Times article The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule.

Eastwood plays Earl Stone, a 90-year-old horticulturist and war veteran who is facing financial ruin. Desperate for money, he becomes a mule transporting cocaine through Illinois for a Mexican drug cartel.

In this Q&A, the four-time Oscar winner talks about directing himself and why it’s hard to find good roles as an octogenarian.

Q: How would you describe the movie?

A: It’s a story of an old guy who inadvertently gets roped into driving drugs up from the Southwest to Chicago. He finds that they are paying him really well but he doesn’t even know what he’s transporting at first. Then when he finds out what he’s carrying, it’s too late; he’s making so much money doing it. Normally he would stop at that point, but he’s kind of turned into a Robin Hood sort of character who’s giving money to people who need it, and so then he kind of feels stuck between doing what’s right and doing something good for others. He’s on the outs with his family, and of course he’s trying to get back in there. It’s an interesting character study.

Q: How do you approach directing yourself?

A: Oh it’s easy because I’ve been directing since 1970 and Play Misty for Me. I directed myself then, and eventually directed other people only, and it would just vary on the subject matter; if there was a role for me, I did it, if not, I directed somebody else who was more suitable for that particular part.