Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood met Jonathan Ross to chat about his career and new movie Mystic River. You can watch the video clips on the right or read more of the interview.

What was it that first attracted you to Mystic River as a story?

It's a powerful story, it's got a lot of layers to it. It was a fascinating book to read and I was always interested in the fact that it has a very emotional side to it... and a detective story that runs parallel to it, and how they converge together. The whole construction of it is intriguing.

It's unusual by today's standards in that [the characters are] quite ordinary people and it's a fairly mundane setting. Was that part of the appeal?

Yeah, it is. They're in a blue collar Boston neighbourhood but the incident [the movie is based around] could have happened in any social group, it could have been in some other society as well.

It's a tremendous cast. I read that Kevin Bacon is reported as saying you only chose the three leads because they were the last three actors of their generation who had their own hair!

[Laughs] Well I think he was being slightly facetious there! They're good young actors. [Bacon, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins play] a group of guys who're supposed to reunite when they're in their early to mid-40s. So you think, "Who are the best guys [at that age]?", and these guys are it. I think they're the better young actors of their generation.

Clint Eastwood on his influences as a director

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