VARIETY Magazine: Film Icon Harrison Ford on His First Emmy Nomination, Whether He’ll Retire, and More

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In a new cover story for VARIETY, film icon Harrison Ford sits down for a rare interview with Senior Entertainment Writer Angelique Jackson about receiving his first Emmy nomination for “Shrinking” and working with Michael J. Fox on the series’ third season. He also talks about if he’ll ever retire, and reflects on being in iconic films like “Star Wars,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Indiana Jones,” and more.

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Ford on receiving his first Emmy nomination for “Shrinking”: “I don’t think there’s anything competitive about creativity, and I don’t understand the need to compare and contrast one person’s work to another’s. If you like it, you like it; if you don’t like it, look at something else. I’m grateful, but I would have done what I did — and I’ll do what I’m doing — regardless of whether it’s deemed worthy of mention or not. Because it’s what I do. It’s what I love doing. I love telling stories. I love pretending to be somebody else.”

On working with Michael J. Fox in Season 3: Ford’s character, Paul, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Ford says that it was “essential” to talk to Fox as Paul continues to deal with his disease.

“Michael’s courage, his fortitude and his grace, more than anything else, is on full display. He’s a very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we’re facing Parkinson’s or not. You cannot help but recognize how amazing it is to have such grace. So he gives me both a physical representation of the disease to inform myself with, but more than that, he allows me to believe that Paul could believe that he could be adequate to the challenge. The truth is that we can’t be fucking around with this just to make a joke or anything. Parkinson’s is not funny. And I want to get it right. It’s necessary to be correct with what we do in respect of the challenge that Parkinson’s represents, and that we don’t use it for its entertainment value.”

On if he will ever retire: “No. That’s one of the things I thought was attractive about the job of an actor, was that they need old people, too, to play old people’s parts.”

On improvising Han Solo’s famous response, “I know,” after Leia tells him she loves him in “The Empire Strikes Back”: “I was supposed to say, ‘I love you too,’ and I thought that was a little un-Han Solo-ish. I thought it was a little banal. So I said no, and [director] Irvin Kershner agreed with me. George [Lucas], when he saw it, was not so sure, and made me sit next to him at the screening of the film the first time we ran it for an audience. They laughed, but it was a good laugh, so we kept it in. Thank you, George.”

On his friendships with Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill: “I had a special relationship with both of them. Carrie had a very inspired wit and very special manner. She’s also very smart, very funny. Both of them were dear friends — are dear friends.”

On working with Francis Ford Coppola on “Apocalypse Now”: “I played a character that I named myself. He wore his name proudly on his uniform. The name was L-U-C-A-S, Lucas. I played a small part, an American soldier who gives Captain Willard [Martin Sheen] the assignment to kill Colonel Kurtz [Marlon Brando]. I play a very nervous guy with a funny haircut. I went down to the Philippines and shot my part of it right after one of the ‘Star Wars’ movies, and when George Lucas first saw the movie, he didn’t know the character was me, even though he was named Lucas. An Easter egg, I now understand it to be.”

On being able to complete Indiana Jones’ journey with “Dial of Destiny”: “Well, I wanted to see him as an older man facing the consequences of the life that he had lived. But I couldn’t imagine that we were going to end up doing five of them. I didn’t expect success. In the movie business, you always go in wanting to be successful, but you don’t always expect to be. I did expect the first film would be wildly successful. I read it very quickly, one time. I’d been asked by George Lucas to go and meet Steven Spielberg, who I didn’t know, and he sent me a script to read. I thought it was great. And then I went to meet Steven, we spent about an hour together and suddenly I had a job.”

On accidentally punching Ryan Gosling during “Blade Runner 2049”: “[We were rehearsing a fight] and we got too close and I hit him. I apologized right away. What more could I do? Can’t take back a punch. Just take it. He’s a very handsome man. He’s still very handsome.”

On whether Kevin Feige has asked him to come back to Marvel after “Captain America: Brave New World”: “Nope.”

On being told he didn’t have a future in film by a studio executive at the beginning of his career: “I was under contract to Columbia Pictures at the time for $150 a week and all the respect that that implies. I was called into the office of the head of the new talent program, and he told me that I had no future in the business. Which was OK. And then he asked me to get my hair cut like Elvis Presley. That I didn’t go along with…He thought that ‘Harrison Ford’ was too pretentious a name for a young man…I met him later, across a crowded dining room. He sent me a card on which he’d written, ‘I missed my guess.’ I looked around, couldn’t remember which one he was, but then he nodded at me and smiled, and I thought, ‘Oh yeah, I know you.’”

On the impact of his plane accident ten years ago: “I’ve been through a couple of big accidents that took a while to heal from. This is not something dismissed lightly, but shit happens; it was a mechanical issue that was judged to be beyond my control. If I’d been at fault, I would have taken another direction. But I don’t think it informs my life on a day-to-day basis now that I’ve recovered sufficiently from the physical effects.”

Ford confirms the accident did not change him as an actor.

[Photo Credit: Peggy Sirota for Variety Magazine]

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