Scott Eastwood

RISING SON

IN THE LONGEST RIDE, BASED ON THE NICHOLAS SPARKS NOVEL, SCOTT EASTWOOD STEPS OUT OF THE SHADOW OF HIS FATHER, CLINT, AND GALLOPS ONTO THE A LIST AS A COWBOY IN LOVE. By Jeff Labrecque

AT ONE VALENTINE’S DAY screening of Fifty Shades of Grey in suburban Philadelphia, the loudest reaction rippled through the theater before the film even started. Several women who came to see Christian Grey literally squealed at the bare chest of the bull-riding cowboy in the steamy trailer for The Longest Ride (out April 10), the latest Nicholas Sparks romance. The actor’s name is never mentioned in the two-minute preview, but more than one middle-aged member of the audience shout-whispered, “He looks just like Clint Eastwood.”

Scott Eastwood does look a lot like his father. It’s the first thing Sparks and director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) noticed when the 29-year-old marched in wearing boots and a cowboy hat to audition for the role of a champion bull rider who falls in love with a sophisticated art student (Britt Robertson). “I thought it was Clint Eastwood coming in to audition,” Tillman says. But the filmmakers want to be clear: Scott won the role on his own. “He doesn’t have a lot of airs about him,” says Sparks. “I often say that the actors who are in these films select themselves, and in this case, that was absolutely certain.”

Eastwood grew up around horses, and he loved the rodeo as a kid. Plus, he’s an adrenaline junkie, so the thought of riding an angry 1,600-pound beast actually sounded like fun. Before filming began, he headed to the Moorpark, Calif., ranch of the film’s stunt coordinator, Troy Brown, with a case of beer and a determination to

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learn the ropes. “They were like, ‘Under absolutely no circumstances can you ride the bull,’” Eastwood says, though he made Brown promise to let him try after filming was completed. “So I did as much training as you could do, around the bull, sitting on the bull—just not out-the-gate riding it.”

You’d think Eastwood would avoid playing a cowboy, simply to minimize comparisons to his father, who launched to fame in the 1960s in Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And early in his career, Scott tried to steer clear of Clint’s shadow, working under his given name, Scott Reeves. (His mother, Jacelyn Reeves, was a flight attendant who had a relationship with Clint in the 1980s.) “I was sort of averse to trying to be ‘Eastwood,’” he says. “I wanted to do it myself, but as you navigate the business, it doesn’t matter what your last name is if you can’t audition. So finally I said, ‘This is stupid. It’s Eastwood.’”

He’s currently filming Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden movie, playing an NSA boss, and he has been cast in Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad, but he’s not plotting some five-year career plan, nor is he afraid to say no. He declined to screen-test for Fifty Shades after he learned he’d have to commit before reading the script. “I thought the book was entertaining,” he says. “But I didn’t want to get dangling in that sort of situation. No thanks.”

He does say yes to adventure, though. In February, long after the movie wrapped, he phoned Brown with a question: Now can I ride the bull? Brown agreed.“With 99 percent of people, I would’ve gone, ‘Hell, they’ll never call,’” Brown says. “But I knew Scott would.” When the day came, “I only lasted about two and a half seconds [on the bull],” Eastwood says, “but it was pretty badass.” ■

Clint Eastwood on the ’60s TV series Rawhide and Scott Eastwood in The Longest Ride