Clint Eastwood Once Said Spike Lee Should 'Shut His Face' in Major Feud

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Clint Eastwood Once Said Spike Lee Should 'Shut His Face' in Major Feud originally appeared on Parade.

Iconic directors Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee once had a major feud over race representation in films — and it led to both filmmakers exchanging bold statements about one another in what biographer Shawn Levy called an “ugly spat” in a new biography about Eastwood, 96.

In the book, Clint: The Man and The Movies, Levy highlighted a moment in 2008 when Lee, 67, called out Eastwood for a lack of representation in his pair of 2006 war films, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flag of Our Fathers, about World War II.

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"He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one Black soldier in both of those films," Lee told reporters at a press conference during the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. "Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that."

However, Eastwood was quick to give a retort to Lee’s comments at the prestigious festival. “A guy like him should shut his face,” Eastwood told The Guardian while promoting his 2008 film Changeling. “Has he ever studied the history?" The Dirty Harry director went on to defend his films as authentic depictions of historical events.

Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood in 2007 (Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage)Jeff Vespa/WireImage

After that, Lee took to ABC News to respond. “The man is not my father and we’re not on a plantation either,” he told the outlet at the time, adding that Eastwood is “a great director,” but that “he sounds like an angry old man right there.”

Interestingly enough, though, the pair did end up making amends — but it was actually thanks to none other than Steven Spielberg, another legendary American filmmaker who made it a point to serve as a “go-­between and convinced them to bury the hatchet,” according to Levy’s biography.

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By September 2008, Lee confirmed the filmmakers had moved on from the feud. “That thing with Clint was overblown, and that stuff was squashed. We’re cool,” Lee toldAccess Hollywood while promoting his own WWII film Miracle at St. Anna. “We never talked, but I talked to Spielberg, and Spielberg talked to [Eastwood].”

Clint: The Man and The Movie was published by HarperCollins and is available now wherever books are sold.

Clint Eastwood Once Said Spike Lee Should 'Shut His Face' in Major Feud first appeared on Parade on Jul 3, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.