Harrison’s Looking For An Adventure

12/2000
New Zealand New Idea
by Joan Krzys

Indiana Jones is getting on a bit, but Harrison Ford is still raring to go. Indiana Jones is hungry for another adventure. It’s been more than a decade since he single-handedly took on the Nazis in a race to save the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

We are sitting in his Manhattan apartment. His trademark Stetson is nowhere to be seen. Instead, he sits relaxed in an easy chair, wearing casual trousers and a shirt almost the same colour as his steel-blue eyes. His silvery mane is spiked to the sky, and there’s a gold stud in his left ear.

‘Yes, I think it’s time for me to dust off my bullwhip and go in search of another fabulous quarry,’ he says.

The intrepid archaeologist , aka actor Harrison Ford, 58, announced after the Last Crusade he was giving up the adventure series because of injuries from the spectacular stunts, which landed him in hospital six times.

So what has changed in his mind?

‘Lots of things. There’s popular demand for starters; then Steven (Spielberg) and George (Lucas) have been on at me for years about a third sequel, and there’s also the fact that any new Indiana movie will have to take in account that he’s getting on a bit.

‘And that appeals to me in a way,’ he adds, cracking a rare smile. ‘It could be fun. Why shouldn’t Indiana be my age? If I’m fit enough, then so is he. What’s wrong with an action hero being in his golden years? It just depends on what his obstacles are.

‘There are racing drivers in their 70s - like Paul Newman, for instance. There are guys in their 70s I wouldn’t want to come up against in a dark alley, like Clint Eastwood.

‘It’s not so much a question of age as vitality. While I’m not anxious to be the world’s oldest action hero, I don’t think it matters so much. It just depends on the quality of the story, the nature of the character.

‘Sean Connery continues to be a viable leading man in action films - and he’s

even older than I am.’ Sean played Indiana’s father.

Harrison confirmed that a fourth Indie adventure is in the works, but that his and Spielberg’s and Lucas’ commitments will prevent them from shooting it until 2004.

Harrison will then be 62 - and Sean Connery, if he agrees to reprise his role as Indie’s father, will be 74.

‘One of the great things about acting is that you can continue to do it in your old age.’

Far from being past it, at 56 Harrison was named Sexiest Man Alive by America’s People Magazine.

His own take on his sex appeal on the silver screen is: ‘All you have to do is be in good movies that are successful. And if you’re in good movies, people will think you’re sexy.’

Harrison shot to fame in 1977 in the role of the arrogant space pilot, Han Solo, in Star Wars.

Since then he’s hardly been out of the movie theatres. Apart from the Indiana and Star Wars series, he’s starred in an impressive list of films. Apart from chick flicks like Working Girl, Random Hearts, Presumed Innocent, and Regarding Henry, Harrison has favoured action hero roles - Patriot Games, Clear & Pre. Danger, Air Force One, The Fugitive, and The Devil's Own.

At home, the intensely private Harrison’s 17-year marriage to screenwriter Melissa Mathison is on shaky ground. The couple split last year, and Harrison did some hard drinking and hell raising on the nightclub circuit. The couple reunited just last week - saving Harrison the prospect of losing half his $440 million fortune in a divorce.

Although Harrison wants to make a fourth Indiana Jones film, he couldn’t tell you much about the first three, or, for that matter, the difference between Star Wars’ robots R2D2 and C3PO.

‘I never watch my own films,’ he reveals. Indeed, acting students at a seminar in New York last year were dumbfounded when their hero couldn’t remember things like the opening sequence in Raiders-Lost Ark.

Finally, a last word on ageing.

‘I never think about age. I liked being young, even though I had no success. But being 40 held no tears because I felt some of my best work lay ahead.

‘At 50, I had no plans to fall apart, and coming up to 60, I have no intention of going to a retirement home. I expect to be around for a long time yet.’

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