ISTP

Clint Eastwood is typed as an ISTP. To verify, I found his Inside the Actor’s Studio interview with Lipton and watched the whole thing. He definitely sounded like an SP, plus by his own admission he is an introvert (“I am not a very talkative person”), so yes, Clint does sound like an ISTP. Keirsey also says of him that “there is probably noone more American than he” which I find interesting. I wonder what that says about America. But let’s not get off topic here.

The issue of courage came up a lot, that fits the position of our previous post; In his younger years as an actor Clint did some own stunts, and someone asks if he was scared and for a split second he turns to he audience, starts mocking his own movie persona (it was hillarious to watch) with his make-my-day-voice says “I ain’t scared of nothin’”. Very funny, and as we said before, right on type. Being, wanting, wishing to be courageous, wanting to be perceived as such while being tounge-in-cheek about it (since it is so important to them it can also be a source of humor) fits SP description. The frequency of the issue coming up was telling.

On the culture code front: Of the famous make-my-day scene, Clint said that he knew that line would be a hit the moment he uttered it. That makes sense because the sentence is on code, right on the cultural fault line, US cultural tug-of-war being between prohibition and letting go. “Go ahead make my day” captures this feeling perfectly. Tough guy is holding himself back, he is not “letting go”, but tells the “bad guy” to “just give him the chance to let loose, and kick some ass”; Wanting to inflict violence (the code for which is SEX) but not, that dance on the fault line certainly made this scene a hit on US movie screens.