Harrison's All Man

Sep 2 1992
Daily Mirror
by Drew Mackenzie/Fiona McIntosh

Patriot Games signals a return to action mode for rugged superstar Harrison Ford.

Harrison Ford is in the vintage wine league of Hollywood stars. The older he gets, the tastier and more expensive he becomes.

This month, he notches up his half century. But, like silver-haired rogue Sean Connery, 62, and devil-may-care Jack Nicholson, 55, he may be mature but he's all man.

Harrison builds houses with his bare hands, spares few words for journalists and lives on an 800-acre ranch in Wyoming, not Beverly Hills, where deer - not starlets - roam.

He has been known, if he doesn't like the way an interview is progressing, to pick up a tape recorder, remove the cassette and crunch it up in his big carpenter's hands.

His voice is rough and throaty, his nose is crooked, his face is scarred after a car accident. And his public sulleness leads some to conclude he has as much natural personality as a rice pudding.

But since he zapped into the Hollywood cosmos in 1977 as Han Solo in Star Wars, Harrison has continued to score full marks in the heart-palpitation stakes.

Countless pretty young actors with firm bodies and tilted noses have come and gone in that time - while Harrison has not just survived, but thrived. However, the rugged superstar claims little credit for his years at the top.

"Luck is the first principle in this business,'' he said. "Believe me, you can work your backside off but, without any luck, it won't do you a bit of good.

"I've always been very lucky and I know it.''

Harrison, a father of four who is married to ET scriptwriter Melissa Matheson, has starred in six of the 10 biggest box office successes in film history.

And the hits are sure to keep on coming. He has just signed a three-movie deal, reportedly worth pounds 26 million, to star as CIA spy Jack Ryan, the hero of Tom Clancy's espionage novels.

Alec Baldwin first played Jack Ryan in The Hunt For Red October, after Harrison turned down the role. The film went on to earn pounds 100 million and made blue-eyed Baldwin a star.

"Not doing that film was one of the worst decisions of my life,'' said Harrison.

"I thought the best role was the Russian captain Ramius (played by Sean Connery) and that nobody would want to see a submarine movie anyway. I was obviously wrong.''

Alec Baldwin was offered the chance to play Ryan in the three Clancy sequels but quibbled about money, script control and filming schedules. Eventually, the producers decided it was all too much trouble - and gave Harrison a second chance. This time, he jumped at it.

"I refused to do another Star Wars, because I thought Solo was just too shallow to explore any more,'' he said. "But Ryan - there's a lot of layers for me to peel off.''

The first of the new set of Jack Ryan films - Patriot Games - begins with cool-headed Ryan disillusioned with the CIA and working as a naval history lecturer. But, while on holiday with his wife and daughter in London, he runs into an IRA attack on the royal family.

He barely raises a sweat as he foils the assassination attempt - then spends the rest of the film keeping one step ahead of the vengeful terrorists.

Producers are pinning their hopes on Ryan becoming the James Bond of the 1990s. The film crackles with high-tech espionage equipment, infrared guns and satellite tracking devices.

But Harrison ends up looking more like Rambo in a suit than a debonair Bond-style hero.
The gung-ho tag clearly gets under Harrison's skin.

"To do this film, I had to come to terms with how I felt about the CIA, with its history of political manipulation,'' he said.

"Some things they have done are reprehensible but it's infantile to think that a corporation the size of the US could exist without an intelligence community.

"But this film isn't a 'let's kick ass for the old red, white and blue flag' enterprise. I wouldn't be happy playing a character who is so unthinking.''

After grappling with softer, more romantic roles in Working Girl and Regarding Henry, Harrison was keen to return to the sort of action-packed movies which made him famous.

"I am very happy to do a lot of the physical stuff, because I think there are more opportunities for character expression,'' he said.

But when it comes to leaping off buildings and hanging on to speeding boats by his fingernails, an older and wiser Harrison leaves the stunts to the experts.

"It would be very foolish to jeopardise a big production by doing something unsafe,'' he said. "And I always told my mother that I wouldn't do anything dangerous when I went out to play.

"These days, I feel the awareness of my natural limitations.''

Spurned Alec Baldwin, 31, has strong opinions on Harrison's limitations.

When he was asked to comment on losing the coveted Jack Ryan role, he could barely contain his venom. "Ford's not sexy and audiences will not turn out to see him,'' he snarled.

Harrison may not be Baldwin's cup of tea but a host of actresses who have co-starred with the man from Wyoming swear by his bubbling sex appeal.

"He's hot. He's a man, not a boy,'' breathed Bladerunner star Sean Young.

And Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher just about hit the nail on the head: "He's an incredibly attractive male animal, this carpenter stud.'

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