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HARRISON
FORD arrived at the private hangar he uses to fly in and
out of Santa Monica Municipal Airport with the
expression of someone waiting in line at the DMV. It’s
not that he is rude or mad, there’s just other places
he’d rather be—the sky is crystal blue, and for a guy
who owns a few planes and a helicopter, the prospect of
another earth-bound interview just isn’t that
scintillating. Munching on a bran muffin, the sinewy
65-year-old movie star admits as much: “I don’t know if
‘patience’ is the word, but the press and promotion, it
does take a different kind of energy and a different
kind of commitment than making the film itself, but I’m
ready for it.”
He’d
better be: After nearly two decades, Ford is returning
to his most iconic role with Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the mega-release that
arrives in theaters May 22. For Ford, it’s been years
since he has had a major hit (you have to track back to
his creepy career departure in What Lies Beneath
in 2000 or the more familiar heroics of Air Force One
in 1997) and, considering how beloved Indiana Jones is
to filmgoers, you can imagine Ford feeling plenty of
bittersweet emotions by donning the old fedora. But
you’d be wrong, he said, taking another bite of that dry
muffin.
YET ANOTHER ADVENTURE.
Harrison Ford once more dons the fedora hat and cracks
the whip in the highly anticipated
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
“It’s
not really a sentimental thing,” Ford said. “I feel
close to a lot of the people involved, so it was nice to
be able to revive those relationships and work on this
character. The character is special because it’s really
brought so much pleasure to so many people. That’s
what’s special about it... [while filming] we knew we
were making what we know will be a popular success—or
what we anticipate will be a popular success—and there’s
no feeling that we’re making something that deserves
anything less than our best effort.”
Maybe
it’s just the adrenaline roles he’s played through the
years, but, in person, Ford seems especially laconic and
unimpressed by the dream factory aspects of Hollywood.
The Chicago native lives on an 800-acre ranch in Jackson
Hole, Wyoming (he calls California “the silly state,”
although he has a residence in
Santa Monica)
with his girlfriend, actress Calista Flockhart, and
their seven-year-old son, Liam.
Want
proof that Ford takes a distant flight path from his
celluloid creations? “My son doesn’t really know who
Indiana Jones is. So far, he vaguely knows what I do for
a living and that it has something to do with Indiana
Jones, but anything he knows about it is from friends,
and it’s not extensive.”
That
will probably change this summer. The franchise that has
grossed $620 million domestically has been on hiatus
since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in
summer 1989, and little Liam will see his dad staring
out from billboards, television screens, magazine ads,
toy aisles and Burger King cups. The actor no longer
finds any of that surreal or interesting. “I’m at peace
with it myself,” he said as some prop planes buzzed
overhead.
Indiana
Jones was created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
(Lucas has been a producer and writer throughout the
franchise, Spielberg has directed), and everyone
involved wanted to see the hero back but, for reasons of
creative agreement and scheduling, it took a little
longer than expected.
Ford
explains: “It worked like this: George and Steven have a
rough discussion about the story. George goes off and
creates the basic story line. It goes back to Steven for
comments and approval. And then when those two have
satisfied each other, then it comes to me and I get to
have my say about it. That entire process? That takes
about... 18 years.”
It would
seem reasonable to assume then that this is the final
farewell to the character that the American Film
Institute ranked as the second greatest screen hero
(just behind Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in To Kill
a Mockingbird). But Lucas has hinted that there
might yet be one more movie there, and Ford himself is
vague, suggesting that in another decade we might have
Indiana Jones and the Hunt for
Haight-Ashbury.
That
talk may just be part of the team’s smoke screens,
though; the secrecy surrounding Crystal Skull has
been a bit staggering. Here’s what is known: It’s 19
years after Last Crusade, and the grizzled Indy
has aged appropriately, he’s still a college professor,
and his sense of fashion has not changed a whit. He will
meet up again with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, back
for the first time since the franchise launched with
Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981) as well as a young
sidekick in a 1950s greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia
LaBeouf).
This
time the quest involves a death-defying scamp through
Peru, power-pulsing Crystal Skulls that may or may not
be of extraterrestrial origin and a Cold War nemesis.
“I was
happy to acknowledge the passage of time because I’m not
sure how you could do it without that. I think there’s
some good fun to be had with his age and doing the
things he does at the age he might be, would be, could
be. For me, it actually wasn’t so hard. I was in better
shape probably than I have been in the others.” Even if
Ford didn’t get goose bumps as he walked in front of the
camera, others did: “Everyone who saw
Harrison on the set kind of turned into a little kid again,”
Lucas said. “He really defines Indiana Jones.”
Ford
knows how his character echoes in pop culture, and
(because he sees the moviegoing public as “my
customers”) he goes out of his way to sign autographs
and say hello to fans. Sometimes it gets a bit much,
though: He’s a volunteer pilot back in
Wyoming, and he’s picked up some stranded hikers through the years
only to see the gesture reported on in the news.
“I’m
part of a county search and rescue with a lot of people,
but suddenly it’s all about me,” Ford said. “I really
got tired of picking people up and having them show up
on Good Morning
America. The next
time maybe I will just push them back out. ‘Hi, I’m
here. Never mind.’”
That
little fantasy brings a big grin to Ford’s face for the
first time during the interview and he laughs out loud.
Then it’s time to go. Asked what he thinks about a whole
new generation of kids playing with fake bullwhips in
their backyard this summer, the customer-service actor
shrugged. “They’ll get over it. I did.” |
