The actor-turned-director told an audience at the Cannes film festival that he occasionally missed performing, adding: "I did a lot of it for a long time. I'll visit it again someday."

Eastwood, who made his name in Westerns in the 1960s, has focused in recent years on directing movies, including "American Sniper" and "Sully".

The Oscar-winner, who backed Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, notably steered clear of politics at a packed masterclass at the film festival in southern France.

But he did rail against political correctness, telling the crowd: "We're killing ourselves by doing that, we've lost our sense of humour."