Back in 1992, Clint Eastwood starred in, produced and directed Unforgiven, one of the greatest Westerns ever made. Nominated for eight Oscars, this modern masterpiece won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
The revisionist plot sees Eastwood play an ageing outlaw who takes on one more job after years in retirement as a farmer. The impressive cast includes Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris.
Harris was cast as English Bob after Eastwood phoned the future Dumbledore star at his house in the Bahamas. Yet the Irish actor thought it was one of his friends pulling his leg, pretending to be the Hollywood legend, as he was in his basement watching High Plains Drifter. After offering to send him a script, Harris simply replied: “Oh, you don’t need a script… I’ll be there!” Yet upon reaching the Canadian set, he was in for a shock from Eastwood.
Unforgiven is on BBC Two this Sunday evening at 10:45pm and will be streaming on BBC iPlayer for a limited time afterwards.