Hollywood tough guy Clint Eastwood made a bizarre cameo on Thursday at the Republican convention, veering into a surreal conversation with an imaginary President Barack Obama represented by an empty chair.
A raucous roar went up from the thousands of delegates as Eastwood, looking frailer than the gun-slinging cowboys he portrayed in his spaghetti western heyday, stood onstage and grilled the imaginary Obama for failing to revive a flagging economy.
“I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem,” Eastwood said during an address in which he taunted Vice President Joe Biden and talked about the detention centre at Guantanamo.
The Oscar-winning director of Million-Dollar Baby and star of spaghetti westerns like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly looked down several times at the empty chair, as if he was listening to Obama criticise Republican presidential nominee Romney, whom Eastwood has endorsed.
“He can’t do that to himself. You’re absolutely crazy!” the actor/director responded.