09/14/2011 – by Cynthia Wright
Clint Eastwood’s upcoming biopic on manipulative FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover is coming to theaters in November. Recently, the director, along with the leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio sat down with GQ Magazine to talk about the movie and Hoover’s “bromance” with fellow agent Clyde Tolson.
About the rumors of Hoover’s love of the men:
GQ Cover
Eastwood: I’d heard all the various controversies and gossip—that he wore dresses at parties. Everybody was saying, maybe he’s gay because he’d never gotten married. But that’s the way they did it back in the ’40s. If a guy didn’t get married, they always thought, Oh, there’s something wrong with him.
(Editor’s Note: When was Hoover ever considered normal anyway?)
Were Hoover and Tolson lovers or an overly intimate bromance?
Eastwood: Well, they were inseparable pals. Now, whether he was gay or not is gonna be for the audience to interpret. It could have been just a great love story between two guys. Or it could have been a great love story that was also a sexual story.”
DiCaprio: What we’re saying is that he definitely had a relationship with Tolson that lasted for nearly fifty years. Neither of them married. They lived close to one another. They worked together every day. They vacationed together. And there was rumored to be more. There are definite insinuations of—well, I’m not going to get into where it goes, but…
Eastwood: It’s not a movie about two gay guys. It’s a movie about how this guy manipulated everybody around him and managed to stay on through nine presidents. I mean, I don’t give a crap if he was gay or not.
DiCaprio: If I were a betting man, I actually don’t know what I would bet [regarding his sexuality].
It’s not surprising that both Eastwood and DiCaprio are hush-hush when it comes to specifically addressing the issues surrounding Hoover’s “bachelor” lifestyle. Perhaps, the two A-Listers want to let their movie speak for itself.
The interview can be found in the current issue of GQ Magazine.
