American Sniper screenwriter's excuse for the fake baby only makes it more funny

If you don't see American Sniper to baffle at the apparent message that killing hundreds of Iraqis is heroic, see it for the scene where Bradley Cooper cradles what is obviously a fake baby for an entire scene and wiggles its little fake arm and everything.

Uploaded to YouTube, the scene had the internet in hysterics yesterday, as people wondered why a film with a $58 million budget would use a doll.

But don't worry, American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall is here with an explanation in a (now deleted) tweet:

"Hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show. (Clint voice) Gimme the doll, kid."

Ruin the fun? You've added to it, sir! Now I have the mental image of a baby phoning in sick to work, Clint Eastwood looking pissed off, stubbing a cigarette out with the heel of his shoe and growling "gimme the doll."

Eastwood is notorious for his no-nonsense approach to directing, as is clear from this Moviefone interview snippet with Armie Hammer from the J. Edgar press tour.

"I do find it fascinating that you went from a David Fincher movie to a Clint Eastwood movie, considering their directorial styles.

As polar opposite as you can get. Absolutely.

Is there any exaggeration there? Is Eastwood really like, “cut, print, let’s move on”?

There would be takes that we did where I was under the impression we were shooting a rehearsal. Or that the cameras weren’t even on … and that’s what we used.

Really? There were times that you really didn’t think the cameras were on?

Oh, yeah, definitely. At one point he was like, “OK, cut, print.” And I was like, “Whoa, whoa, Clint, I had my sides in my hands, I thought we were just rehearsing that.”"

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'Sides' refers to his script, he still had his script in his hand.

American Sniper is in cinemas now.