How have you managed to stay fit and did you enjoy the nude scene?

As you can see under this table I am not so fit. The nude scene was simple. Clint said that Tommy and Jimmy were going to do it, and asked would I do it. I was compromised into doing it! But this morning when Francine [his wife] looked at me as I came out of the bathroom and said "Your bum looks a lot better than it did in the movie", and I said ,"Well, in the movie I tightened my ass to try and make it look younger". And the problem was it accentuated the droop and you can see all the folds. That is what I did to look younger.

What has been the guiding light in your career?

I have been working as an actor since 1956 so that is 40-odd years. You have a little bit of talent, a certain amount of good fortune and a lot of hard work in pursuit of whatever truth you can find in it, and if you are really lucky, a terrific partner and I have that and those four things worked out for me. And it is a lovely life. I have been able to play a lot of guys and they have kept me working.

What do you think of Clint as a director:

I came out of the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square, having just seen "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and I wrote him a fan letter. I had never written a fan letter in my life, because I was so overwhelmed with the exquisite textural quality of this film, and the multifaceted elements. He wove in so many different threads of the recognition of American culture, and his films have grown and grown. He is one of the really great American film makers.

Read about the other Space Cowboys: James Garner, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones