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

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- [Woman] All right, whenever you're ready,
just right down the barrel,
I'm Harrison Ford, and this is the timeline of my career.
- Oh, now you're gonna give me readings?
[woman chuckles]
I wanna tell stories that elevate our lives, change us,
give us experiences which make us more empathetic,
more, um, human.
[lively music]
I am Harrison Ford.
This is a timeline of my career.
Well, all I knew about being an actor
was that you had to either go to the East Coast
or the West Coast to be a professional actor,
and I was starting out after a season of summer stock
in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.
We had already packed all of our belongings
into the Volkswagen.
My wife and I stood outside
and flipped a coin to see
whether we would go east or west,
and it came up east.
And I'd been raised in Chicago,
and I was sick and tired of the cold,
so I said, "Let's make it two outta three."
And we did, and it came up West Coast.
So we drove out to the West Coast,
and I became an actor.
That's luck.
- Bob Ellis?
- First film I ever did was "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round."
I played a bellboy.
Paging Mr. Ellis.
Paging Mr. Ellis.
Those are the entirety of my lines.
No explanations required.
- [Man] Are you sure?
- Yes, sir.
Fast ship?
You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?
- Should I have?
- It's the ship that made the Kessel Run
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 anybody that he'd worked
with in "American Graffiti,"
that he was looking for new faces.
I was working on an elaborate portico entrance
to Francis Ford Coppola's offices
working as a carpenter when George walked in
with Richard Dreyfuss to begin the first
of the interviews for "Star Wars."
Somehow that rang a bell with George,
and I became, eventually, Han Solo.
- The possibility of successfully navigating
an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to one.
- Never tell me the odds.
"Star Wars" was a big success.
So I was happy to come back and play Han Solo again
and again but that was enough.
I thought that he had reached his potential,
therefore could serve the story by dying.
[gentle music]
Chewie, we're home.
Manner of death was not an issue.
I was very gratified to see that other people
were enthusiastic to have me back.
I was happy to be there.
I don't really have a favorite.
It's just brick on a brick
to build the story.
It's not about the party.
It's about what you're celebrating.
[boulder rumbling]
[dramatic music]
Ugh!
It became clear that Tom Selleck,
who had already been chosen to play the role,
was going to be unavailable
because of his commitment to do a television series.
I got a call from George who said
that he would like me to read a script
as quickly as possible and then get over
to Steven Spielberg's house and talk to Steven.
And I read the script as quickly as I could.
I saw a great opportunity in a fun movie
and went to meet Steven and apparently satisfied.
[light music]
The part was offered to me, and I accepted.
Mola Ram!
Prepare to meet Kali,
in hell!
[dramatic music]
- Oh!
What are you doing?
You fool! [woman screaming]
- I knew that it was meant to be a series.
And while I had not agreed to do three "Star Wars" films,
in the case of Indiana Jones I felt
there was enough information to allow
me to agree to do a number of those.
[dramatic music]
[light music]
Dad!
- What? - Dad!
- What? - Dad!
- What?
- Head for the fireplace!
- Oh.
- Sean and I had a great time working together.
Very different, one to the other.
Our experiences and our lives are very different,
but we had a great time working together.
The guy is fun to be around.
He takes pride in his work,
and he cares a lot about doin' a good job.
It was great fun to work with him.
Stop, you're gonna go off the cliff.
- That's the idea.
- Bad idea.
Gimme the wheel! - Slow down, Mom!
- Trust me! - Slow down.
[men screaming]
- Ah.
I was very happy to see Karen Allen come back,
and I thought it was a natural extension
of the relationship.
And I was glad to marry her.
No, I don't really have favorites.
I really enjoyed each of the film
and the different experiences that I had
in each film and the people that I worked with.
You're not a replicant.
Go home.
Okay?
[suspenseful music]
No, really.
I'm sorry.
I got a visit on set, I believe, from Ridley,
who told me the story and asked if I was interested.
I read the script.
I was interested, so we made a deal.
I don't remember anything like "Blade Runner"
up to that point.
The character, the overall story,
it's his storytelling skills,
made it an attractive offer.
He reads.
That's good.
Me too.
Not much else to do around here at night anymore.
I didn't expect "Blade Runner" to come back,
but I was happy to do it.
There's no difference whether you're working
with CGI or reality, the job is still the same,
to create a character and behavior that helps
illustrate the story.
It's all make believe.
Want a drink?
- We're just here for the day.
Would you mind if I took your picture?
Now just stand still, please.
Fix your hat a little bit so I can
get a better picture-- - Lady, you take my picture
with that thing, I'm gonna rip your brassiere off
and strangle you with it.
Got a script from Jeffrey Katzenberg
who was head of Paramount Studios.
It was in the olden days
when things moved fast on a handshake.
He asked me if I liked the script.
I said I liked the script.
He said, "Is there someone you would be interested
"in working with as a director?"
And I said yes, I thought I would be interested
in working with Peter Weir.
I'd seen films that Peter had done.
Peter accepted the job.
We had four weeks of preproduction.
Peter went off to research the Amish,
and I went off to research the police.
We came together, did some rewrites on the script
and shot the movie.
I was surprised that I was nominated for the Oscar,
but the film was very successful.
Peter was also nominated as well,
but we were unable to attend
as we were making another movie in Belize,
that being "Mosquito Coast."
Wrong, wrong, wrong!
There are people in New York who live on pet food
and would kill ya for a quarter.
You don't dare take a walk for fear
somebody'll stick a knife in your ribs.
Think about it.
You stay home, and they come in through the windows.
10-year-old homicidal maniacs on every street corner.
They go to school.
Ha!
They go to school!
A very interesting character.
That's what we look for as actors,
departures, different characters to play.
That is the beauty of having a career as an actor.
You get to play different kinds of characters
in different kinds of films,
which appeal to different audiences.
That's the fun of it.
I don't think you'd make the same film exactly today.
You'd make a different film from the same story, perhaps.
Know what the biggest problem in the 20th century is, son?
[drowned out by chainsaw]
You're not asking her, Jack [word bleeped].
Go on, get outta here.
Haul ass, I haven't got all day.
- Hey, I go on my own time.
- You'll go now!
Don't mess with me, man.
I am an American, and I am crazy.
It's an example of the kind of film
that we used to make in the olden days
with directors that were really important
in the formation of a career for me.
I didn't actually do it all myself.
I got to work with the Alan Pakulas,
Sydney Pollack, Mike Nichols.
Those kinds of films are as important to me,
on a human level, as those more successful films,
which I keep revisiting in interview situations
because they are the most successful films.
But that's not what makes a life.
That's not what makes a career.
That's not what brings pleasure
to the pursuit of something ineffable.
My wife first!
I promised myself that when I saw you
I would get to know you.
You're the first woman I've seen
at one of these damn things that dressing like a woman,
not like a woman thinks a man would dress
if he was a woman.
- Thank you, I guess.
- Mike Nichols, romantic comedy, great fun.
Mike Nichols is a smart guy.
There were a lot of directors that I worked for
in the olden days.
I'm looking for people to work with intellectually
and emotionally, looking for somethin' different
to what I've lately done.
I'm looking for something new,
something different, something challenging.
That serves me to help me choose projects.
It was a very interesting time.
No names, no business cards.
- I want you to know one thing, Sabich.
I know.
- Sure you do.
- Go ahead, play cool.
I know.
You killed her!
You're the guy.
- Yeah?
You're right.
You're always right!
Alan Pakula, sweet, generous man
and a really good filmmaker.
Great pleasure to work with him.
Story came from a book written by Scott Turow
based on a real-life case.
Scott Turow was a prosecutor in the Chicago area.
It was a very interesting character to explore.
He has an affair with a business associate,
played by Greta Scacchi, and he suffers
the consequences of his infidelity
in a [chuckles] dramatic way.
I think it's a powerful, emotional story,
and I loved making that one.
I loved working with Alan.
I worked with him again on a movie
called "The Devil's Own" with Brad Pitt,
which I also think is a really good movie,
although we had a real hard time making it.
But Alan made I think finally made
a really good movie out of it.
What's the money for?
I was thinkin' guns, I was thinkin' IRA.
"The Devil's Own" was a script that Brad Pitt had developed.
It came to me to play another character.
Brad and I had to come to agreement on a director for it,
and we agreed on Alan
and ended up making the movie.
We didn't agree on everything,
and we hammered it out,
and we made peace among ourselves.
He's a good guy.
[tense music]
Tell SO-13 you know who she is.
Tell 'em her name.
Give 'em her picture.
Tell 'em that she poses as a rare book dealer
and ask 'em to look for her.
Whatta ya mean, what do you do?
- What am I supposed to do with you, Jack?
- There are two films I did based on Tom Clancy books,
both directed by Phillip Noyce.
Really good movies.
I was really pleased with them.
What attracted me to the character
was that Tom Clancy had written the character
with a political bias.
I thought that we could tell the story
with a little bit more emotional complication.
We were intent on giving Jack Ryan
a slightly different personality
or reality than Clancy did.
We got a lot of access from CIA
because of their relationship with Tom Clancy.
We're talking about important things,
global power and manipulation of history.
Thought it was really interesting to me,
and I think those films are good movies.
I am not after your job, Marty!
[dramatic music]
I did do "The Fugitive."
Based on the quality of the script,
the potential for that character,
I thought it was ambitious.
I never considered myself to be an action film actor.
There was action in the films
that I was involved in, but they weren't specifically
fairly described as action films.
I did Jack Ryan movies, which had action in them,
"Air Force One."
Get off my plane!
Was an action film.
Donald Trump's favorite president.
I am not reminding you.
I'm reminding him.
Rather than just being based and founded
on a belief in kinetic activity being sufficient
to build a movie around, they had a story.
They had a plot, they had characters,
they had conflict.
So I didn't consider them action films.
[dramatic music]
Object, to you?
Look at you.
[gentle music]
It's as though a lovely breeze has swept
through this whole house.
- Even though the breeze comes
from the general direction of the garage?
- It's the '90s, Sabrina.
- So they say.
- Sabrina was a remake of a movie
that starred Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.
I made the choice when we did the film
not to watch the original.
I didn't wanna make choices
based on doing it like Humphrey Bogart
did it or not like Humphrey Bogart did it.
I just didn't want to know,
so I didn't actually take the opportunity
to look at the original version.
You can have the home back the way it was,
but you gotta take it all,
he's lying, he's screwin' another woman.
They're laughin' about how easy we are to fool--
- Stop.
Don't do that.
I'm done with them.
- It was another Sydney Pollack movie,
powerful experience for me working with Sydney again
and the cast that he assembled.
I always found it very interesting
to work with a director more than one time,
and in my career, I did two films
with a lot of different directors.
The second time, you always find something new,
something different that exists because of the experience
that you've had together already.
Interesting personal experience
and hopefully good movie.
The thing is--
- [Woman] Stop.
- You killed her, didn't you?
- I did not.
I didn't kill anyone.
Jesus, Claire, listen to me.
When I got here, she was already dead.
She killed herself here in our house to destroy me.
Bad guy.
Bad, bad guy.
Fun, great fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Zemeckis directed it,
and it was the first really bad guy that I played.
- Oh, yeah.
I enjoy a good tale,
and I'm not just lookin' for good guys to play.
I'm interested in the humanity of characters
that are not obviously good.
It was my ambition,
I wanted to take the success of more popular films
and allow me to make choices which would be
less obvious, less focused on the potential
economic success of the film.
But to play different characters
and stretch people's sense of who I was
and allow me to explore the full range
of potential characters.
I'm asking you to forgive me.
Activate the system!
- The primary was never connected.
It has to be activated locally.
[dramatic music]
- Go to nine, and turn on the system.
That was a very interesting experience.
Kathryn Bigelow directed it.
We shot some of it in Russia,
a great deal of it in Canada, in New Newfoundland,
exploring the lives of Russian submariners
based on a real-life story.
Getting to know those people and what they've been through
and be part of the telling of that story.
Getting a chance to work with Kathryn Bigelow,
who, so far, I think, the only woman director
that I've worked with.
That seems weird to me.
I like that movie.
I like the sophistication of the storytelling
in that movie very much.
[dramatic music]
I'll do it myself!
- Can I just say one thing?
That's our job!
I know you think you're above it,
and, of course, you were above it
before you got fired, but now,
you guess, well, you're down in the mud
with the rest of us, Mike.
- And yet I still have standards,
unfortunately for you.
- Suppose I don't have standards?
- Sure you do.
When you got your pap smear on air,
you wore a silk robe.
- Okay!
- Classy touch.
"Morning Glory" was a romp about the news business.
It was directed by Roger Michell,
and I got to work with Diane Keaton, who is fabulous.
I'd never met her before.
Yeah, yeah, she's great, really great.
If you saw the behind the scenes footage
and it looked like we were having a good time,
it's probably 'cause we were havin' a good time.
That was real.
Yeah, we had a good time.
It was fun.
Watch Mike Pomeroy before your morning dump!
What you do with your team is your decision, Herb.
But my team's gonna be in Philadelphia tomorrow
with Robinson, and if we have to claim the game
as a forfeit, so be it.
That's nine to zero.
"42" Brian Helgeland's movie about Branch Rickey,
who brought Jackie Robinson, the first black
baseball player, into organized white baseball.
Changed baseball, changed the culture
of this country for the better.
No, I was not a baseball fan,
and I didn't know much about baseball.
I didn't know that there was black baseball
and white baseball.
Of course, black baseball players were not
being paid what white baseball players were being paid.
This is a guy who out of a conscience
and an understanding changed history.
It was a real pleasure to be part
of the telling of that story.
You think God likes baseball, Herb?
It wasn't the gold.
He didn't care about that.
It was the mountains.
He spent all day looking at maps
and pictures of the mountains,
dreaming about what was on the other side,
places no one had been,
[light music]
wild places.
It was a challenge in "Call of the Wild"
in getting the character.
More complex and potentially more emotionally
involving than the way the character
is presented in the book.
John Thornton was facing domestic issues,
if you will, that he had run away from
in the context of his relationship with Buck.
The opportunity to see John Thornton
as a redemption of the experience
that Buck had had with humanity
was part of what I was interested in exploring.
- There's a book?
[interviewer laughs]
Well, I read it a long time ago,
and then I read it recently.
More than twice.
The film was shot not in Alaska but it was shot
in Santa Clarita, which is 24 miles from here.
Not cold, not the Yukon.
We ended up in CGI territory
not just for the convenience of it,
because all of the animals were computer generated.
Much of the articulation of the dogs,
the capacity to manipulate their performances,
we would not have been able to do that
without CGI, and, at the same time,
since we were shooting on a CGI platform,
we could enhance the environment.
And so we were able to excise the Santa Clarita of it
to create, in a very imaginative and powerful way,
I think, the beauty and majesty of nature.
I don't have any particular easily described process
when it comes to selecting what I'm gonna do.
I do have to have an emotional reaction to the material.
I've gotta feel genuinely that I have experienced.
It allows me to meet the challenges
of the expression of that character.
The experience I've had working with different directors,
different actors, I've certainly learned
more about the craft of acting.
You never know how it's gonna turn out, actually.
I do remember that when I was leaving school
and all of my friends were going off to.
Well, they were graduating.
I was gettin' thrown out.
But they went on to professional careers
after which they would retire,
play gold and die.
And I, I was looking for some way outta that.
I wanted excitement.
I wanted a challenge.
I didn't want a real job.
And I was lucky.
[lively music]
This is Harrison Ford.
This has been the timeline of my career, so far.