Harrison Ford flies

6/1/1998
Good Morning America
Lisa McRee

LISA McREE, Host: If you're stranded on a tropical island, it might not be so bad if you were beached with the person of your dreams. But Harrison Ford and Anne Heche aren't so lucky. Hi, glad to see you.

HARRISON FORD, Actor: Hi, (inaudible).

LISA McREE: In the film "Six Days and Seven Nights," and in this movie, you are a headstrong cargo pilot?

HARRISON FORD: Yes, I suppose headstrong is a word that would be apt.

LISA McREE: You, headstrong?

HARRISON FORD: Me?

LISA McREE: Get out of here.

HARRISON FORD: No...

LISA McREE: Get out of here! There is a lot of action, and we have a clip of the movie now, wherein tempers flare when the plane goes down.

(clip from "Six Days and Seven Nights") HARRISON FORD: We've only got one wheel, so we can't take off. Lightning fried the radio and the emergency location transmitter. Air-Sea will probably try a rescue, but without a beacon to hone in, it's like trying to find a flea on an elephant's ass. The only thing we've got is this flare gun and a single flare.

ANNE HECHE, Actress: Is it too late to get it sugar-coated?

HARRISON FORD: That was sugar-coated.

LISA McREE: So the scene is grueling, and the action in the movie is supposed to be grueling. But shooting this movie was pretty grueling too.

HARRISON FORD: Well, now, wait a second. We were in Kauai in the summer, in all the nicest places of Kauai.

LISA McREE: But I heard there were some close calls on the set.

HARRISON FORD: I didn't notice any, if there were.

LISA McREE: No?

HARRISON FORD: No.

LISA McREE: Really?

HARRISON FORD: Really.

LISA McREE: I heard there were bumps and bruises and scrapes and stitches.

HARRISON FORD: Bumps and bruises, yes, but not close calls.

LISA McREE: Not close calls.

HARRISON FORD: No stitches, no broken bones.

LISA McREE: Oh, that's good.

HARRISON FORD: Unless you count Anne's toe, and I think she did that at home.

LISA McREE: You fly a lot, and you got to fly in this plane. What did you fly?

HARRISON FORD: It's a DeHavilland Beaver. It's about a 40 - - 50-year-old design, a plane that hasn't actually been manufactured for about 30 years.

LISA McREE: How was it?

HARRISON FORD: It's a fantastic airplane. I mean, the -- not only is it physically a wonderful character in the film, I mean, it works very well for our story. The story is, Anne arrives for her dream vacation with her fiancee, and is presented with this as a means of transportation, which is not exactly what she had in mind.

LISA McREE: And so she hires you. Where does she pick up you?

HARRISON FORD: I come with the plane.

LISA McREE: You come with the plane.

HARRISON FORD: I come with the plane. Neither of us seem to be what she -- exactly she had in mind.

LISA McREE: Now, how was she to work with as a leading lady?

HARRISON FORD: She was fantastic. Anne is a very intelligent, energetic, terrific actress. She had -- I was impressed by everything that I'd seen her done before -- that I had seen her do prior to the readings that we had. But we did a couple of readings with her, and she just popped right through as an obvious choice.

LISA McREE: Did she get your sense of humor?

HARRISON FORD: She trumped my sense of humor.

LISA McREE: Really?

HARRISON FORD: She took my sense of humor and turned it back against me, which was delightful.

LISA McREE: You love that.

HARRISON FORD: I loved it, and Ivan Wrightman (ph), our director, loved it even better.

LISA McREE: That's great. Now, after that disclosure that she made on Oprah last year, there were a lot of worries that -- not that her talent or her acting ability would be in question, but that the audience might not buy it. Did you at all worry about that?

HARRISON FORD: What do you...

LISA McREE: (inaudible) -- after her disclosure with Ellen on the Oprah show last year, I know the film was being made at the time, and there were articles in the press that said the studio may be concerned about the bankability. Did you ever worry about that?

HARRISON FORD: No.

LISA McREE: No (inaudible)...

HARRISON FORD: No, no. I let them worry about that.

LISA McREE: That's their job.

HARRISON FORD: I just wanted the best actress that I could have to play the scenes with. And that was Anne. And there was no doubt in my mind that by the time this event rolled around, all of you would stop asking these kinds of questions, and we'd just get on with the movie.

LISA McREE: And it turned out...

HARRISON FORD: Of course, I was wrong.

LISA McREE: You were absolutely wrong. It turned out to be a good experience, though, for you.

HARRISON FORD: It was fantastic.

LISA McREE: Are you on vacation now, or are you shooting something?

HARRISON FORD: I'm getting ready to start a film with Sidney Pollack and Kirsten Scott Thomas called "Random Hearts." LISA McREE: And you did "Sabrina" with Sidney.

HARRISON FORD: With Sidney, yes.

LISA McREE: And what's "Random Hearts"?

HARRISON FORD: "Random Hearts" is a tough, grown-up romance. It's about two people who lose their spouses in an airplane accident and -- commercial airline accident (inaudible)...

LISA McREE: (inaudible) -- yes, not -- you -- nobody -- nobody...

HARRISON FORD: It's not a private...

LISA McREE:... not private -- right.

HARRISON FORD:... airplane accident.

LISA McREE: So you're really changing -- sort of changing the pace every time you pick a movie, it seems, these days.

HARRISON FORD: That's the idea.

LISA McREE: Yes, keep it interesting?

HARRISON FORD: Well, for me, at least.

LISA McREE: Some little birdie told me that Jack Mott Ryan might come back to life, that there's a script that's being worked on.

HARRISON FORD: Well, that little birdie has a hope in his heart. I -- if it were to happen, I'd be delighted.

LISA McREE: They're working on that, I hear.

HARRISON FORD: Yes.

LISA McREE: Still doing the old carpentry thing?

HARRISON FORD: Not too much.

LISA McREE: Not too much?

HARRISON FORD: Not too much.

LISA McREE: Where are you spending most of your time? Are you in Montana all the time, or New York?

HARRISON FORD: My kids are in school in New York here, and in summers we go to Wyoming.

LISA McREE: Wyoming, right, I'm sorry, not Montana.

HARRISON FORD: Yes, everybody else is in Montana.

LISA McREE: Yes, exactly. Not you. The kids like it in New York, though.

HARRISON FORD: They do, actually. They love the jazz and the excitement of the city.

LISA McREE: Did you let them go to Hawaii while you were shooting, or did you make them stay in school?

HARRISON FORD: No, it was summer, so we all went together.

LISA McREE: Oh, that's great.

HARRISON FORD: We had the whole summer together.

LISA McREE: Well, the movie opens...

HARRISON FORD: June 12.

LISA McREE: All right. And we'll see you there.

HARRISON FORD: Thanks.