I lucked into the oppor­tu­nity to see Clint East­wood live at the Apple Store SOHO this week. He was there to talk about his movie “Gran Torino” (which I still need to see) as part of Apple’s series on influ­en­tial people in the media arts.

It was fas­ci­nating to get to see him in person. It was sur­prising to be reminded how old he is now (78). He grew up in a very dif­ferent time in our his­tory, and when you listen to him talk about his influ­ences in film-making, they’re all from the 40’s and 50’s – periods I know nothing about (aside from a little war history).

What struck me most was he appeared slightly uncom­fort­able. Here is a man who may be the most rec­og­niz­able actor of the last half-century. I sup­pose when you act you are not sur­rounded by crowds of people. During the inter­view, in front of well over a hun­dred people, he didn’t seem relaxed. I know I per­son­ally would not be relaxed, but it was strange to see that in someone so pop­ular, well known and seem­ingly familiar. I have to remind myself that I don’t know him at all.