Harrison Ford: Hollywood loved him even before they knew him

6/12/2003
The Cincinnati Post
Angela Dawson

When he arrived in Los Angeles some 35 years ago, Harrison Ford --then just another actor -- was surprised to discover a star bearing his name on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

"It's on the sidewalk in front of Musso & Frank," a popular eatery among industry people, relates the 60-year-old Ford.

He figured Hollywood was either extremely optimistic about his chances, or someone else shared his unusual name. It turned out to be the latter. The star belongs to a silent film actor who died in 1957.

Nearly four decades later, the Harrison Ford known to moviegoers the world over finally got his own star in the sidewalk on Hollywood Boulevard. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg and "Ally McBeal's" Calista Flockhart, Ford's girlfriend, were in attendance at the unveiling ceremony.

The ever-modest actor says he never dreamed of getting his own star. After all, his only ambition when he set out as an actor was to enjoy steady employment. He never figured himself a leading man; he would have been happy to be a character actor, he says.

As fate would have it, Ford would headline some of the most successful films of the 20th century: the first "Star Wars" trilogy, the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, acclaimed dramas such as "The Fugitive" and "Witness," actioners such as "Blade Runner," "Air Force One" and "Patriot Games," and comedies such as "Working Girl."

"I was kind of surprised," says the quiet actor of his Walk of Fame honor. "Happily, it's on the occasion of the opening of my latest film -- so that helps promote the film and I'm grateful for the opportunity."

His latest film is aptly titled "Hollywood Homicide," a big-action buddy comedy that pairs him with hunky star-on-the-rise Josh Hartnett ("Pearl Harbor," "Black Hawk Down"). Much of the film, directed by "Bull Durham's" Ron Shelton and co-written by Shelton and former LAPD detective Robert Souza, was shot in Hollywood and its environs.

Ford plays Joe Gavilan, a hard-nosed homicide detective who moonlights as a real estate broker to make his alimony payments. The veteran cop is teamed with K.C. Calden, a reluctant young detective who can't shoot straight. Calden's after-hours gigs involve teaching yoga to voluptuous Beverly Hills beauties and trying to break into acting. Together, this unlikely duo is assigned to investigate a multiple homicide involving a rap group at a nightclub. (The filmmakers insist any similarities to the assassinations of rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur are coincidental.) Meanwhile, Gavilan is being investigated by the internal affairs division, and a real estate deal critical to his financial solvency hangs in the balance. Lena Olin, Bruce Greenwood, Isaiah Washington, Master P, Dwight Yoakam and Martin Landau co-star.

Ford, whose last film was the well-shot but dreary submarine movie "K-19: The Widowmaker," says he was looking to do a comedy. After talking to Shelton, he jumped on board "Hollywood Homicide" without seeing a finished script.

Ford says Gavilan "is like a lot of guys I know. He's like a lot of cops I know, and he's a bit like me."

Ford wanted to explore the comedic possibilities between an older cop and younger cop working together. "We took advantage of the differences -- the generational differences -- and different styles and tastes and points of view," the silver-haired actor says.

Ford was comfortable playing the older cop. "I clearly am not a contemporary of Josh Hartnett's, but there are still a lot of roles available for people my age -- as Sean Connery has absolutely demonstrated," he says. "I've never been an ageist or concerned that much with age."

Of his 23-year-old co-star, Ford says dryly: "Josh is a very capable, personable young man, and I enjoyed acting with him and torturing him."

Asked to elaborate, Ford slyly responds, "It seemed almost enough just to show up."

Some of it was a deliberate attempt to create tension between the characters. Ford would intentionally walk in front of Hartnett and step on his lines, recalls the younger actor. "He was going to make me feel that I had no business being there. And I found out later that he was testing me -- and it worked," the Minnesotan says with a laugh. "I found a way to kind of make that funny."

On-set pranks aside, Hartnett says he was thrilled to work with his movie hero. "I grew up idolizing him," the blond, brown-eyed actor says. "He was like a father figure to me. I have this box somewhere with a Han Solo figure in it."

To prepare for his role, Hartnett studied yoga for about seven months for nearly two hours a day. He also learned how to shoot a police service revolver. His character isn't supposed to be a very good shot, but director Shelton boasts that Hartnett turned out to be very accurate.

This being an action film as well as a comedy, both leads faced physical demands. Ford, no stranger to the genre, found most of the running, falling and fighting routine -- except for an injured hamstring that left him sidelined for three weeks during production.

Born in Chicago, the son of an Irish father and Russian-Jewish mother, Ford was an average student. He attended college in Wisconsin where he first studied acting and performed in summer stock before moving west to pursue an acting career.

He started out as a contract player with Columbia Pictures, making his film debut in the 1966 crime drama "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round." After a small role in "Getting Straight," he resolved not to let his career choices be dictated by financial concerns and turned to carpentry while he waited for the right role.

"When I was coming up, it was still the old studio system of making stars and then owning them, which is something that they got over a very few years after they met me," he says, smiling. "It wasn't because of me, but they just stopped doing that sort of thing."

In 1973, George Lucas cast him in "American Graffiti." The next year, he landed a prominent supporting part in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation." He later had a small but notable role in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now."

In 1977, he went to work again for Lucas as the cocky rebel starship pilot Han Solo in "Star Wars," and his place as a Hollywood leading man was secured. The film shattered box-office records and Ford became a household name. Four years later, Spielberg called upon the ruggedly handsome actor to play the intrepid adventurer Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That movie too became one of the highest grossing films of all time. Indeed, Ford's name is usually as good as box-office gold. Ten of his films have earned more than $100 million, and he now commands upwards of $25 million a picture.

A fourth Indiana Jones installment is in the works. Lucas and writer Frank Darabont have finished a draft and delivered it to Spielberg, who will direct it. Ford says he will have a look at the script after Spielberg. He is hopeful about it and says he's looking forward to revisiting the Jones character.

The father of two, Ford recently divorced his wife of 20 years, screenwriter Melissa Mathison. Private in his personal life -- he owns a 700-acre ranch in Wyoming -- Ford has had to contend with the media spotlight on his subsequent romances, the most recent of which is Flockhart, 22 years his junior.

Having been a working actor half his life, the job has become easier for Ford. "It gets to be second nature," he says, his head resting thoughtfully in his hand. "But then you get to a case that you've never seen before and suddenly you don't necessarily know how to work your way through it. Then your experience and history helps guide you through it. If acting weren't fun for me, I wouldn't be doing it. It's hard work and it's concentrated work, but it's certainly better than a real job."

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