It's amazing that the chair didn't crack under the pressure of Clint Eastwood's steely gaze.
The actor and Oscar-winning director was perfectly jovial, of course, on Ellen DeGeneres' couch for an interview airing tomorrow on Ellen, but it was easy enough to tell that the 82-year-old Eastwood hasn't lost sleep over the divided response to his schtick at the Republican National Convention.
"You got a lot of attention for that—but you don't care, do you?" Ellen asked.
"No," he said simply.
"It was an interesting reaction, actually," Eastwood said, smiling. "The Democrats who were watching thought I was going senile, and the Republicans knew I was...It was actually just trying to enjoy myself."
The former mayor of Carmel, Calif., acknowledged that his values were more Libertarian—"that's where Republicans used to be"—than strictly conservative.
"You're socially liberal, leave everybody alone, but you believe in fiscal responsibility and you believe in government staying out of your life," he explained.
"I thought so, too," Eastwood agreed with the audience's round of applause.