How Donna Mills landed the role in Play Misty for Me

How Donna Mills landed the role in Play Misty for Me

I recently found this very interesting article on the internet about actress Donna Mills where she spoke about her experiences while working with Clint on Play Misty for Me.  We don’t tend to find too much about Misty, so I thought I’d use the relevant excerpt and post it here. I thought it made for excellent reading. 

Donna Mills got her lucky break with Clint Eastwood, thanks to another Hollywood heartthrob.

Before finding fame in "Knot’s Landing," the actress worked alongside Burt Reynolds in 1970's "Dan August." The "Smokey and the Bandit" star was so impressed by his co-star, he recommended her to his friend Eastwood for his directorial debut.

"I worked with Clint Eastwood because of working with Burt Reynolds," the 82-year-old told Fox News Digital. "I had come out here to California. I was living in New York at the time where I was doing a soap opera. About a month or so later after doing ‘Dan August,’ I was getting ready to leave the soap. I had already given them my notice. All of a sudden, I got a call. I was told I got this new movie with Clint Eastwood. My instant reaction was ‘What? How did I even do that if I’ve never met Clint?' I didn’t audition for it or anything."

"It turned out he ran into Burt Reynolds at a bar one night, and he was saying, ‘I can’t find a girl I like to play my girlfriend in this movie I want to do,'" she shared. "Burt said, ‘Well, I just worked with this girl from New York. Maybe you’d like her. I thought she was great.'… Clint hired me from that!"

Mills played Eastwood’s love interest in the 1971 cult film "Play Misty for Me." The thriller, which also starred Jessica Walter, chronicles the life of a disc jockey whose world is turned upside down after a romantic encounter with a crazed fan.

For the role, Mills was required to share a passionate smooch with "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" star. It was far from ugly. Mills insisted Eastwood, 92, is a very good kisser. "I would give him a triple A!" the star gushed.

She also revealed that Eastwood was "a really sweet man" on set. She described how Eastwood was willing to omit a love scene from the film out of respect for her. "Here I was, coming from a soap opera in New York," she explained. "I’ve never done a major motion picture out in California, let alone with one of the biggest stars in the world. It was mind-boggling. And yet, while we were shooting, he was so laid back and so nice to me. He was very generous. He actually did something that I’ve never had anybody else do. There’s a scene in the film that’s a montage scene where we’re in a pond naked together. I think there’s a waterfall. What I do remember is that it was very cold. He played me a song he wanted to do this scene to because that wasn’t in the original script that I got. He said, ‘You know, we’re gonna have to be naked together in this.’ I went, ‘Oh, my parents aren’t going to like that!'"

"He said, ‘I know it might be difficult for you,’" she continued. "’But we’ll shoot it and then I’ll show it to you. If you don’t like it, if you think it’s lascivious or anything at all, I won’t put it in the film.’ He honoured that. I saw it and it was just beautiful. He shot everything so carefully and out of respect. It came out so incredibly beautiful and worked so well for the storyline. There wasn’t anything lascivious about it at all. So of course, I said, ‘Yes, put it in the film.’ But that’s just a very kind, considerate and generous thing to do."