Does Clint speak Italian?

[nyna]

As he translated what Ennio was saying at the Oscars, or was he reading the treanslation off the prompter.
Just wondering.

[nyna]

Excuse translation couldnt correct it.
I think once he said in an interview he just read his lines .

[KC]

I'm pretty sure he was reading it, nyna. I know he worked a lot with Italian filmmakers at the beginning of his career, but I don't think he ever studied the language. He has said that when he worked with Sergio Leone, each of them knew only a few words of the other's language. According to Richard Schickel (Clint Eastwood, p. 135), two interpreters helped them communicate: Benito Stefanelli, a stuntman and character actor who was in all the "Dollars" films, and Elena Dressler, who worked for the producer.

EDIT: After I posted the above, I saw your second post, so I merged the two threads. 

[nyna]

Thanks KC.
Yes after posting I couldnt get to edit one word I mispelled so I did another post.
Anyway I finally got around to see the whole Oscars and Clint looks good, keeps well, must be his young wife keeps him young.

[MC]

Entertainment Weekly on the question at hand, from its "Burning Questions From The Big Night" article:

Clint Eastwood translated for Honorary Oscar winner Ennio Morricone. Does he really speak Italian?
Si! Eastwood picked up the language when he starred in spaghetti Westerns like Sergio Leone's 1966 classic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. But Eastwood wasn't translating Morricone's speech entirely on the fly — he read the English from a TelePrompTer. As for his thanking host Ellen DeGeneres for sending him a headset, ''that was a joke,'' says his rep.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20013826,00.html

[KC]

Yeah, I saw that. I still don't think Clint is spending much of his spare time reading La Divina Commedia or I Promessi Sposi in the original ...