Stephen Campanelli has been a Clint Eastwood fan for as long as he can remember. In his laundry room hang two posters that tell the story of his journey from fan to collaborator. The first poster shows a young Eastwood lounging in his trailer on a film set. Campanelli points to it and says, “Look at this guy. I just love how cool he is.” Before we get to the second poster, Campanelli says he idolized Eastwood so much he watched all his movies, named his childhood dog Clint, and dressed up as one of the star’s most iconic characters. “I put a Radio Shack cassette recorder underneath the poncho and played ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ theme song really loud,” Stephen laughs. “I was kind of a hit at a few Hallowe’en parties back then.” At the same time, Stephen was regularly making amateur movies with his friends and dreaming of being Clint’s cameraman when he grew up. While one was surprised when Stephen attended film school and made an award-winning student movie, no one could believe that when the young filmmaker earned a chance to meet Eastwood at a movie gala being staged in is hometown, he declined. “Everybody said, ‘You should go and meet your idol’ and I said, ‘No.’” Stephen says he had just got hired to do an entry level job on his first professional film production. “I was going to show I’m dedicated to this industry and this craft.” Thanks to that work ethic and innate talent, Stephen became one of Canada’s most in-demand steady-cam operators, which eventually led to him being hired to shoot ‘The Bridges of Madison County,’ starring and directed by Eastwood.
Stephen Campanelli: From Clint Eastwood’s Fan to Director in His Own Right
