Harrison Ford Breaks Down His Career, from 'Star Wars' to 'Indiana Jones' | Vanity Fair

okay, as long as you're right, right at the bottom of the barrel, I'm Harrison, well, now you're going to give me readings. I want to tell stories that elevate our lives, change us, give us experiences that make us more empathetic. I'm Harrison Ford, this is a timeline of my

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, well all I know about being an actor is that you had to go to the east coast or the west coast to be a professional actor and I was

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ting out after one summer season in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and we had already packed all our belongings into the Volkswagen, my wife and I stood outside and flipped a coin to see if we were going east or west and I arrived and I had grown up in Chicago and I was fed up and tired of the cold and so I said, let's do two out of three and we did and it came up on the west coast, so we approached the west coast and I became an actor.

Lucky me, the first Bob Ellis movie I did was a merry-go-round tie. he played a bellboy calling mr. Ellis calling mr. Ellis, that's all my lines, no explanation required, I'm sure you have, Mr. Quick Chip, you've never heard of the Faulkner millennium, you should have, it's a ship that made the Kessel work in less than 12 parsecs. I had done American Graffiti with George Lucas George Lucas made it known that he was not interested in working with anyone who had worked with American Graffiti that he was looking for new faces I was working on an elaborate particle entrance just the offices of Francis Ford Coppola working as a carpenter when George came in with Richard Dreyfuss to

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t the first of the interviews for Star Wars, somehow that made it sound like George and I finally became Star Wars was a huge success, so I was happy to come back and play Han Solo once. and again, but that was all. enough but I thought it had reached its potential therefore it could serve the story by dying surely we are at home the way of dying was not a problem.

I was very gratified to see that other people were excited to help me. I was happy to be there. I don't really have a favorite, it's just brick on brick to build the story, it's not about the party, it's about what you're celebrating. It became clear that Tom Selleck had already been cast to play the role and would not be available because of his commitment to making a television series, I received a call from George who told me that he would like me to read a script as quickly as possible and then leave. to Steven Spielberg's house and talked to Steven and read the script as quickly as I could.

I saw a great opportunity in a fun movie and I went to meet Steven and, apparently satisfied, they offered me the role and I accepted that it was going to be a series and although I had not agreed to do three Star Wars movies in the case of Indiana Jones. I felt there was enough information to allow me to agree to do several of those things. Shawn and I had a great time working together, very different from each other, our experiences and our lives are very different, but we had a great time working together, guys. He is fun to be around, takes pride in his work, and cares a lot about doing a good job.

It was very fun to work with him. I was very happy to see Karen Ellen return and thought it was a natural extension of the relationship. I was happy to marry her. No, I don't really have favorites. I really enjoyed each film and the different experiences I had on each film and the people I worked with. You are not a replicant. Go home. It's good, no. Sorry, I had a visit on set, I think from Ridley, who told me the story and asked if he was interested. I read the script. He was interested, so we made a deal.

I don't remember anything like Blade Runner until that moment. It's the character, the overall story, his storytelling skills made him an attractive offer, he reads, it's nice to meet you, how much else do you do around here at night? I didn't expect Blade Runner to come back, but I was happy to do it, no difference. Whether you're working with CGI or a reality, the job remains the same to create a character and behavior that helps illustrate the story, it's all drink, we're only here for a day, would you mind if I take your photo? ? Still, please fix your head a little.

Message with that thing. I'm going to rip your hold off this rope. I got a script from Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was head of Paramount Studios. It was in the old days when things moved quickly with a handshake. He asked me. If I liked the script, I said I liked the script, he said is there anyone I would be interested in working with as a director? And I said yes. I thought he would be interested in working with Peter, where he had seen films that Peter had made. Peter accepted the job. We had four weeks of pre-production.

Peter went alone to investigate the Amish and I went to investigate the police. We got together, rewrote the script and shot the movie. I was surprised to be nominated for the award. To the Oscar, but the film was very successful. Peter was also nominated, but we couldn't go because we were making another movie in Belize where, being Mosquito Coast, it was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong that people in New York lived on pet food and it would kill you for a quarter no You dare to take a walk for fear that someone will stick a knife in your ribs, think about it, you stay at home and they come in through the windows, 10-year-old homicidal maniacs on every corner, they go to school, they go to school, a very interesting character. that's what we look for as actors different characters to play that's the beauty of having a

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as an actor you can play different types of characters and different types of movies that appeal to different audiences that's the fun of I don't think he would exactly do the same movie today, you would make a different movie of the same story, maybe that's the biggest problem of the 20th century, son, you're not asking your man, go away, get out of here.

Don't mess with me, I'm American and I'm crazy. It's an example of the kind of film we used to make in the old days with directors who were really important in shaping a career for me. I don't. In fact, I did it all myself. I was able to work with Alan Pakula Sydney Mike Nichols. Those types of films are just as important to me on a human level as those more successful films that I keep reviewing in interview situations because they are the most successful, but that's not what makes a life that's not what makes a career that's not It is what brings pleasure to the search for something ineffable.

My wife, I first promised myself that when I saw you I would know you. You are the first woman I have ever seen in one of those damn things that dresses like a woman, not a woman. She thinks a man is what would I wear if I were a woman, thanks again, romantic comedy by Mike Nichols, very funny, Mike Nichols was a smart guy, there were a lot of directors I worked for back in the day I'm looking for people to work with intellectually and emotionally I'm looking for something different than what I've done lately I'm looking for something new something different something challenging to help me choose projects it's very interesting time names business cards I know, go ahead, play it cool I know you killed it, you're the guy yes, you're right, you're always right Alan Pakula, a sweet and generous man and a very good filmmaker.

It is a great pleasure to work with him. He came the story. from a book written by Scott Turow based on a real-life case Scott Rowe was a prosecutor in the Chicago area. He was a very interesting character to explore and he has an af

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with a business partner played by Curtis Cocky and suffers the consequences. of his infidelity in a dramatic way, I think it's a powerful and emotional story and I love doing it. I loved working with Allen. I worked with him again on a movie called The Devil's Own with Brad Pitt, which I also think is very good.

Although it took us a lot to do it, but Allen did it. I think I finally made a really good movie. What is the money for? I was thinking about weapons. I was thinking that IRA Devil's Own was a script that Brad Pitt had developed. In order for him to play another character, Brad and I had to come to an agreement on a director and we agreed with Ellen and we ended up making the movie, we didn't agree on everything and we worked it out and we made peace with each other and he's a good guy Tell us, even if she's thirteen, you know who she is, tell her her name, give her her photo, tell her that she's pretending to be a rare book seller and ask her to look for her, what do you mean, what are you doing, what am I supposed to do?

With You, Jack, are two movies I made based on the Tom Clancy books, both directed by Philip Noyes, really good movies. I was very satisfied with them. What attracted me to the character was that Tom Clancy had written the character with a political slant. I thought we could tell the story with a little more emotional complication. We intended to give Jack Ryan a slightly different personality or reality than Clancy. We had a lot of CIA access because of his relationship with Tom Clancy, we're talking about something important. things, a global power and the manipulation of history I thought was really interesting to me and I think those movies are good movies.

I'm NOT looking for your job, Marty. I made the future based on the quality of the script, the potential for that character, I thought. He was ambitious, well, I never considered myself an action movie actor. There was action in the movies I was in, but they weren't specifically described as action movies. I made Jack Ryan movies that had action in the Air Force. There was an action movie on my plane Donald Trump's Favorite President I'm not reminding you, I'm reminding him, rather than simply being based and founded on the belief that kinetic activity is enough to build a movie around They had a story, they had a plot, they had characters, they had conflicts, so I didn't consider them action movies.

The object of watching is as if a lovely breeze has swept through this entire house even though the breeze is coming from the general direction of the garage. , is the Sabrina of the nineties so they say that Sabrina was a remake of a movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. When we made the movie, I made the decision not to see the original. I didn't want to make decisions based on whether or not to do it like Humphrey Bogart did. Humphrey Bogart did it. I just didn't want to know, so I didn't take the opportunity to see the original version of the Sydney film.

It was a powerful experience for me to work with Sydney again and the cast he assembled, and I always found it very interesting. work with a director more than once and in my career I made two films with many different directors, the second time you always find something new, something different that exists because of the experience you have had together, an interesting personal experience and I hope it is a good film , she was already dead, she committed suicide here in my house to destroy me. bad boy bad boy funny very funny Michelle Pfeiffer Bob Zemeckis directed it and it was the first really bad guy oh yeah, I enjoy a good story and I'm not just looking for good guys to find it.

I'm interested in the humanity of characters who aren't obviously good. It was my ambition either to take the success of more popular films and allow myself to make decisions that would be less obvious and less focused on the potential financial success of the film, but to play different types of characters and broaden people's sense of who I was and allow me to explore the full range of potential characters, activate the system, the main one was never online, it must be activated locally, go to mine. and turning on the system, it was a very interesting experience, it was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, we filmed part of it in Russia, much of it in Canada and Newfoundland, exploring the lives of Russian submariners, based on a real life story, meeting those people and what they've been through and being a part of telling that story, having the opportunity to work with Kathryn Bigelow so far.

I think the only director I worked with seems strange to me. I like that film. I like the sophistication. From the narration of that film, I can only say one thing: it is our job. I know you think you're above that, and of course you were above that before you got fired, but now you guess what you're in the mud with the rest of them. of your life and yet I still have standards, unfortunately for you, I guess I don't have standards, you sure do when you put your peps mirror on the air, you were wearing a silk robe, okay, elegant touch, wear a Gloria was a romp on the news, the business was run by Roger Michele and I got to work with Diane Keaton.

It was fabulous. I had never seen her before. Yeah, she's great, really great. If she saw the behind-the-scenes footage and it looked like we were having a good time, it's probably because we were having a good time. a good time, that was real, yeah we had a good time, it was fun, watch Mike Pomeroy before your morning dump, what did you do with your team, it's your call weed, but my team will be in Philly tomorrow with Robinson and if we have to complain. the game as a loss, so be it, 9-0 42 Brian Hold was a film about Branch Rickey, who brought Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player, to organized white baseball.

The baseball change changed theculture of this country for the better. No, I wasn't a baseball fan and I didn't know much about baseball. I didn't know the difference between there being black baseball and white baseball, of course, black baseball players weren't paid what white baseball players were paid, this is a guy who out of conscience and an understanding changed the story it was a real pleasure to be part of the telling of that story you think God likes baseball the grass wasn't gold he didn't care about the head it was the mountains he spent all day looking at maps and he had images of the mountains dreaming about what was on the other side places where no one had been places was a challenge in the call of the wild in making the character more complex and potentially more emotionally involved than the way the character is presented in the book.

John Thornton was facing domestic problems, so to speak, that he had fled in the context of his relationship with Buck and the opportunity to see John. Thornton as a redemption for Buckethead's experience with humanity was part of what I was interested in exploring. There's a book I read a long time ago and then I read it recently. More than twice. The movie was not shot in Alaska, but was shot in Santa Clarita, which is 24 miles from here, it's not cold, it's not the Yukon we ended up in, in CGI territory, not just for convenience because all the animals were computer generated, a lot of the articulation of the dogs, the ability to manipulate their performances that we wouldn't have been able to do without CGI and at the same time, because we were filming on a CGI platform, we were able to enhance the environment and therefore, We were able to eliminate the Santa Clarita from it to create in a very imaginative and powerful way.

The way I think about the beauty and majesty of nature I don't have any particular process that is easily described when it comes to selecting what I'm going to do, I have to have an emotional reaction to the material, I have to genuinely feel that I have experience that It allows me to face the challenges of expressing that character. The experience I have had working with different directors. Different actors. I've certainly learned more about the art of acting. You never know how it will turn out. Actually, I do. I remember when I was leaving school and all my friends were doing well, they were graduating, they were kicking me out, but they went on to pursue professional careers, after which they would retire, play golf and diet, and I was looking for some way. outside of that I wanted excitement I wanted a challenge I didn't want a real job and I was lucky that she is supportive, this has been the timeline of my career so far