Alison Eastwood, director of the new film "Rails & Ties," and daughter of Clint Eastwood poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, California.

Clothing preoccupied her, but directing fits

Alison Eastwood has been a model, an actress, a Playboy Playmate and a producer. Now, the 35-year-old daughter of Clint Eastwood has turned her talents toward directing.

Her first effort, "Rails & Ties" (in limited release), features Marcia Gay Harden and Kevin Bacon as a couple forever changed by a deadly train crash. It's heavy material for the first-time filmmaker, who started with the project as a producer.

But Eastwood says it was 8kismet. She was immediately drawn to the story, and in the process of making the movie, she discovered that she's a director.

Eastwood talked with the Associated Press about her various artistic pursuits and how they led her to her true calling.

How did you find this story?

I got the script through a friend of a friend. ..... I read it and I liked it, and originally I attached myself as a producer. Then after having it for a couple of years and working on it with the writer, I just started having a vision for it. I started having a really strong desire to tell this story and had a real passion for it.

The leap from actor to producer to director is substantial. Was it an organic shift?

I always kind of do things a little backward in my life. It was never like I aspired to direct. I always wanted to be involved in films, whether it was producing or acting, but directing? Maybe it was subconscious just because of the association, like, OK, I'm already kind of 8living in the shadow of this iconic person and being in his business that maybe I just didn't want to go there. ..... So after finding this material, it kind of became obsessive, almost like where I couldn't refuse.

Did your father contribute at all, in terms of suggestions or working with the studio?

He was helpful in getting it to some people to read. He's always kind of been supportive from afar, but he did hand it over to a couple of key people (at the studio) and fortunately they really liked the material. And as long as I could stay within a certain budget and had certain kind of key people working with me, they were willing to give me a chance to direct.

How did your work in front of the camera inform your directing?

I think it helps tremendously. ..... I think a lot of directors are very technical and obviously have the creative things going on, but they don't really know what an actor has to go through. Sometimes they don't necessarily know how to communicate to actors, and I think it's really important (to) realize that responsibility, because if the actors don't have amazing performances and you're not helping them, there's no reason to turn the camera on because they're your subjects.

What made you launch a clothing line?

I've always grown up with horses, and I've always had this love for the West and that kind of ranch life and vintage-inspired clothes. I had the idea to really start a lifestyle brand ..... and celebrate the American West and all the different decades of fashion, particularly kind of the turn-of-the-century and the wild West.

Which is harder, movies or fashion?

Once you get the financing usually for a film, you can somehow move forward, whereas one wrench gets thrown into the machine of (clothing) manufacturing and it just throws a terrible domino effect of disaster. My experience as a director and even as an actor has never been as difficult as trying to make clothes. It's by far the worst.

What inspired you to pose for Playboy in 2003?

I'd just turned 30 and the opportunity kind of arose. I think I had some other ulterior motives, which I don't necessarily need to talk about, but I think it was more that I thought, you know, I'm probably not going to look like this for too much longer and I've always been extremely comfortable in myself and in my body. ..... I was able to kind of pick and choose the photos I wanted and who I wanted to shoot it. And of course they compensated me well. I was in the midst of my clothing line, which was eating up my bank account. ..... I don't know, maybe it was turning 30. I'm 35 now. I don't think I'd ever do it again.

You've done many things, but now you're a director.

I feel most comfortable. This is really where I felt like I had that moment, even on the first day of shooting, where I just went, I feel like I've been doing this forever.

By Sandy Cohen / Associated Press