Quinta Brunson Lives in ‘Constant Fear’ of Accidentally Parking in Clint Eastwood’s Spot

Quinta Brunson is one of the most popular creatives working in TV today — and presumably, that acclaim will only increase exponentially once Abbott Elementary finally crosses over with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But just because she created and stars in an Emmy-winning comedy, doesn’t mean that Brunson isn’t afraid sometimes. And one of her fears, it turns out, is this guy:

On the most recent episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, naturally, the subject of Conan’s physical attributes came up. Brunson noted that the host has “gorgeous” eyes, but he can also do a solid impression of the “old man” who always “hits your car if you’re in his parking space.”

While Brunson couldn’t remember the celebrity’s name, she further explained that the person she was thinking of was “always angry” and is “in a bunch of Westerns.” Conan eventually realized that she was describing Dirty Harry himself: Clint Eastwood. 

“I love that your generation refers to Clint Eastwood as ‘who’s the angry old man?’” Conan joked. “That is one of my favorite moments on the podcast. ‘Who’s that old man that gets mad if you park in his spot?’”

Brunson went on to explain that she has good reason for associating Eastwood with his bad parking etiquette more than any other aspect of his career, and it has nothing to do with her age. “I’m on the WB lot, and it is my constant fear that me, or someone else, will park in his spot,” Brunson stressed. “So that’s what is my main relationship to him.”

It’s become the stuff of Hollywood legend that Eastwood is not a fan of people parking in his designated spot. In 1983, The New York Times reported that “no one has parked in Clint Eastwood’s spot since he took a baseball bat and knocked out the windows of a car that had trespassed on his space.”

Earlier this year, former Warner Bros. Vice President Bill Daly confirmed that he’d heard the same story, although he’d been told the instrument of vehicular destruction was a golf club, not a baseball bat. Also Eastwood supposedly paid for the damages to the car once he’d cooled off. But Daly did note that he wasn’t sure if the story was actually true or just a “cautionary tale.”

The most comprehensive version of this story was actually reported in 1989, after an animation production company employee sued Eastwood for $100,000. It seems that she parked in his spot in order to quickly drop off a tape in December 1988, but Eastwood was so angry that another car was in his space that he intentionally rammed into it with his vehicle, and then “had to be restrained after threatening to smash the windows of her car with a hammer.” 

The judge somehow sided with Eastwood, despite the fact that what he did was clearly illegal, ordering him to pay just $960 while awarding no punitive damages to the plaintiff.

But this was six years after the Times story about the baseball bat, which implies that this happened on more than one occasion. So you can see why Brunson, or anyone who works on the Warner Bros. lot, would think of Eastwood, first and foremost, as the elderly psycho that smashes up cars like a geriatric Hulk. 

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).