Before They Were Stars: Toby Stephens as a Young Clint Eastwood in “Space Cowboys”

We did a Shouts From the Back Row podcast about Clint Eastwood a few days ago, so here’s a unique “Before They Were Stars” clip of Toby Stephens playing a young… Clint Eastwood. The black-and-white opening scenes of Space Cowboys take place in the 1950s and feature different actors playing younger versions of the four main characters. Strangely enough, the young actors are dubbed over with the voices of their older acting counterparts, so you get to witness the surreal sight of Toby Stephens speaking in Clint Eastwood’s voice (which makes logical sense since Stephens is British and doesn’t sound anything like Eastwood). In an interesting piece of trivia, that young actor speaking in Tommy Lee Jones’ voice in these scenes is Eli Craig. His acting career never went far, but he would eventually go on to direct the cult horror-comedy, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. Oh, and for another “Before They Were Stars” moment from Space Cowboys, check out Jon Hamm’s dynamic debut role as “Young Pilot#2”.