Hollywood broke Scott Eastwood's heart, but he's not giving up — yet

For 15 years now, Eastwood has been trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood. He's had some modest successes — landing roles in blockbusters like 2016's "Suicide Squad" and 2017's "The Fate of the Furious," and found acclaim in the 2019 war movie "The Outpost" — but even Eastwood, 35, admitted he's still not where he wants to be in his career.

"I've been burnt a few times," Eastwood told Insider. "In that way, I'm questioning if that's something I really want to subject myself to into my 40s. I don't know."

You can't fault the guy for having high expectations. His father is one of the greatest American actors of all time. Honestly, it's hard not to see the legendary four-time Oscar winner Clint Eastwood when you look at his son. The good looks, alpha-male bravado, straight talk, and, yes, the legendary squinting. The younger Eastwood has all the traits that made Clint a movie icon for decades.

But despite working in an industry in which nepotism is as commonplace as palm trees in Southern California, Eastwood is trying to make his own mark.

Eastwood began his career using his given name, Scott Reeves

It's a paint-by-numbers rom-com that has Eastwood playing Jenny Slate's onscreen hot ex, who tries to break up his current fling so he can come back to her.

Eastwood gave a noble effort promoting the movie, but he's done this enough times to know the person on the other end of the Zoom wanted to talk about other things. Like, how does he assess his career at this point? The Eastwood squint came out as he pondered the question.

"The pros are you get to travel the world, jump into different characters. You have good experiences, mediocre experiences, and terrible experiences — and I put that in the pros because that's just part of life," Eastwood said. "The cons are you are really a cog in the wheel. Film is a director's medium, and if an actor thinks any different they're just very naive."

Eastwood certainly wasn't that way when he started.

Under his father's tutelage, he knew he'd have to play the game initially if he ever wanted to find success. Eastwood began his career using his given name, Scott Reeves (the actor was born in 1986 after a relationship Clint Eastwood had with then-flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves), as he wanted to get work on his own merits. But by 2008, he succumbed to using his famous last name.

"I think my dad always wanted me to," Eastwood told Interview magazine in 2009 about his name change. "I just wanted to prove to myself that I could carry on his name."

But as the years have passed, playing the game has weighed on Eastwood. When asked whether he thinks he's gotten the roles that catapult young actors into stars, he pauses to mull it over before answering.

"It's a really weird business," he said. "You can be in a great movie or have a great role, but maybe a film doesn't perform as well as it should have."

Eastwood recalled a 'volatile moment' with Shia LaBeouf on the set of 'Fury'

He's since tried to forge a career as an action star. He's been cast in some big movies and gained some stories to tell along the way — like getting into a scuffle with Shia LaBeouf on the set of the 2014 David Ayer war movie, "Fury," also starring Brad Pitt.

It turns out LaBeouf took offense to Eastwood while shooting one scene in a tank. Though it was written in the script that Eastwood's character would spit on LaBeouf and Pitt's tank, LaBeouf took it personally. It led to what Eastwood described as a "volatile moment" with the actor before Pitt stepped in and broke things up.

"I never think your process as an actor should ever hinder how people are treated on set," Eastwood said, looking back. "It should always enhance the production, not take away and put people in a situation where it's a shitty work environment or you're rude or people have to be in an uncomfortable situation." (Insider reached out to LaBeouf and Pitt but didn't get a response.)

After "Fury" wrapped, Ayer called Eastwood and offered him the role of "GQ" Edwards (which was originally supposed to go to LaBeouf) on his next movie, the blockbuster "Suicide Squad," starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto as some of the baddest DC Comics villains.

"He basically was like, 'Come on this journey with me. I'm going to make you look like a badass. I'm going to make your character pop,'" Eastwood said of Ayer's pitch to him. "I didn't even know what the character was at the time."

The actor passed on the 'Suicide Squad' sequel after advice from his dad

His "Suicide Squad" character got limited screen time and was a background player among the star-studded cast.

"I have talked to David, and I know my character got a lot more love in the Ayer cut," Eastwood said, referring to the now-infamous version of the movie that was never released.

Eastwood said another challenge presented itself when Warner Bros. started pushing him to sign a three-picture deal for more "Suicide Squad" movies.

"They didn't want to pay me any money for those next movies and ... they didn't have another script for the other movie, so I didn't know what I was going to be signing myself up for," Eastwood said.

In need of guidance, Eastwood said, "I called my dad."

The actor admitted he and Clint Eastwood don't talk regularly, saying their chats are "not daily, maybe once a quarter," but said when it comes to the business, he wouldn't turn to anyone else.

"I said, 'They don't want to pay me,'" Eastwood said, recalling the conversation he had with his dad. "He said, 'If it feels like they really need you and if it's a good part, then do it. If not, then don't.'

"I didn't have the answer to those questions at that time. I wasn't going to have the answers, and they were pressuring me. So ultimately it didn't happen," he added.

(Insider reached out to Warner Bros. for comment but didn't hear back.)

It was likely a good call, as most of the characters from Ayer's movie who returned for James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" in 2021 were killed off.

After breaking his ankle before making 'The Outpost,' Eastwood slept in a hyperbaric chamber to heal faster

Rod Lurie's "The Outpost" — based on the Jake Tapper book of the same name — recounts the 2009 Battle of Kamdesh in which 300 Taliban fighters attacked Combat Outpost Keating, a small American-run base, and almost took control of it. In the 2020 film, Eastwood delivered a harrowing performance thanks to his portrayal of Medal of Honor recipient Clint Romesha.

"Eastwood is particularly solid," critic Brian Tallerico noted on RogerEbert.com, "giving a performance that is so reminiscent of his father's youth that one can almost close their eyes and hear Clint."

Eastwood almost lost the role due to an injury. Just before filming began, he broke his ankle. Lurie said the insurance company was on the verge of shutting the movie down, but then Eastwood called Lurie.

"He said, 'I'm fucking coming. I'm going to do this,'" Lurie recalled to Insider. "He was really aggressive about it. There was a sense of personal pride and mission."

First Eastwood shot scenes only sitting down, then only standing, then ones in which he walked two or three steps. The actor then went on a 10-day break to rehab, which included sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, as Lurie shot other scenes. When Eastwood returned, he did his action scenes.

"He really pulled it off," Lurie said. "He had this work ethic that was absolutely extraordinary. It was like nothing I've ever personally seen."

Eastwood said he isn't afraid to walk away from acting

Eastwood has also begun gaining producing credits. Taking a page from his dad's playbook, he thought that more skin in the game would lead to his no longer being an acting cog.

But with forgettable titles like 2014's "Dawn Patrol," 2017's "Walk of Fame" and last year's "Dangerous," starring Mel Gibson, Eastwood admitted the experience has been "heartbreaking."

"That's the funny thing I've learned. There are producers out there who are in the business of just making quantity," he said. "They are just making movies for a certain price that they can sell internationally, and they don't really care how the movie turns out. That's not the business I want to be a part of."

Lurie said the only thing holding Eastwood from the next level in his career is being attached to the right projects.

"He comes from royalty. He was raised by an actor-director on how to be really good at this," Lurie said. "Scott could be one of our great actors, and I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I've seen it. I've seen the work ethic."

Still, Eastwood is losing patience.

At the end of our Zoom chat, Eastwood gave a seemingly very honest answer when asked whether he's starting to feel burned out from the years of playing the Hollywood game.

"I think so," he said. "I have other endeavors that I'm interested in outside of the film business. I find a lot of creativity in real estate. Buying and improving homes and bringing a creative vision to a home that no one really can think of and wants to do. That's always made me happy."

"It's a circus," Eastwood continued, talking about Hollywood. "It's an amazing circus at times, but living on the road, I think it would be tough. I don't have a family yet, but I want that someday, and I think about what that would look like with kids and being away from them. That worries me," he continued.

"But I think before I'm done or before I call it a day, I would like to tell a few stories that are passionate to me."