An unlikely harmony for Eastwood in Jersey Boys

Amid the swirl of an early 1960s party scene in Clint Eastwood's latest project, an adaptation of Jersey Boys, the hit Broadway musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, a television screen flashes an unexpected face: young Eastwood, himself, in black-and-white.

The period-appropriate shot from the TV Western Rawhide - a wry Hitchcockian cameo - condenses in a moment the almost unfathomable breadth of Eastwood's career: fresh-faced cowboy to steadfast Oscar-winning director. Does it feel like a lifetime ago to Eastwood?

"Several lifetimes ago," chuckles the 84-year-old director. "Seeing myself in 1959 or '60 or '61 or whenever that episode was done, it was kind of like: Wow. I've traveled a long road since then."