Harrison Ford: He's back in charge

7/18/2002
The Cincinnati Post
Luaine Lee Scripps

NEW YORK -- It's true, Harrison Ford will slip into Indiana Jones' beat up fedora once more. The movie will probably be released in 2005 and that will make Ford 63 years old. But that's not too long in the tooth for a superhero, thinks the redoubtable Ford.

''I don't give a rat's ass about getting older,'' he says. ''I don't think it's a problem, the character's not confined by age.''

A case in point is his new movie, ''K-19: The Widowmaker.'' In this film, opening on Friday, Ford plays a Russian sub-marine captain charged with saving the world from a cataclysmic accident.

''I just thought it was an interesting concept to do a film from a Russian point of view,'' he says. ''The character was interesting to me in terms of its dramatic development and how it worked. I liked the other people involved and that was it.''

Though he is credited as executive producer, he didn't originate the undertaking, he says.

''(Director) Kathryn Bigelow developed the project over a period of four or five years,'' he says. ''It was her project. I just came to a point where I wanted to have some issues to struggle with, and I wanted to be involved with decisions rather than just be regarded as a 'movie star' with a point of view, but to have some real input.''

For a long time Ford has been more than a name above the title. He's usually actively involved in the tales he tells and is always guided by the story, he says.

''I'm more interested in storytelling than performance. I'm not a performance-oriented actor. I don't seek out films that are built around performance. I seek out films built around story,'' he says.

''If you set out to make an intelligent film you're probably going to make a pretentious film,'' he thinks.

''This is an entertainment industry. This is a story. If we can bring up some issues that people of intelligence are engaged by, at the same time satisfy people who don't go to the movies to engage in intelligent arguments, then that's best way to go.''

Ford says he likes acting because it's always a challenge. ''It's an opportunity to work with a group of people on an idea and try to bring it to the fullest expression as you can. I like the fact that there is a kind of 'frontline' feeling to it. It's dangerous that the potential for screwing up and making mistakes are so that it becomes important to do it right.''

Missteps made on film tend to hang around forever, he says. ''They don't rot in a vault the way they used to. They make laser discs and other indestructible records of your inadequacy to the past, so it's a very demanding and engaging job. And, over the years, I've developed some degree of craft, a skill in dealing with the job of storytelling,'' he says.

''I also like, as well, that it's a service industry. I like the fact that I'm able to be part of making something which gives people pleasure and emotional exercise. I very much like the emotional component of it. I like the fact that the end product creates a sense of community in our culture that doesn't have very many things to organize a common feeling around and of course, the pay ain't bad.''

He may be on the verge of Social Security, but Ford still exudes his own brand of sex appeal. He scoffs at that idea. ''Sex appeal has nothing to do with it. All you have to do is be in good movies that are very successful and if you're in good movies that are successful, people will think you're sexy.''

In the very early years nobody found him sexy, nor even employable. In fact, Ford worked as a carpenter before he managed to interest any of the studios. ''When I first came, the studio didn't know what to do with me,'' he recalls. ''So they sent me off to get an Elvis haircut. I finally got it but protested wildly about it and they finally fired me. That was at Columbia. They fired me at Universal, too.''

Through thick and thin Ford has always been true to himself, retreating from Tinsel Town between pictures, keeping a low and gentlemanly profile. Last year he and his wife of 18 years divorced. Since then he finds himself Grade AA tabloid fodder, linked with names like Minnie Diver, Lara Flynn Boyle and even Calista Flockhart.

''The new Harrison Ford has not changed that much,'' he says. ''I think what we're really seeing is the remarkable change in journalism. There is no test of truth. Nobody holds themselves accountable. People make up s----. You can't do anything, so you just keep your mouth shut and don't play their game. . . It's disgusting.''

Though he claims he doesn't work all the time, Ford's next project is already on the call-sheet. ''I'm doing a film with Ron Shelton and Josh Hartnett, my co-star, in August. It's a cop buddy movie set in Los Angeles. We don't have a title. It's called 'The Untitled Harrison Ford Cop Movie.' Then in January, I'm doing 'Walk Among Tombstones.' It's about a down-and-out ex-policeman who investigates a series of murders.

After 36 years in the business, does Ford still find acting a thrill? ''It was never a thrill,'' he says. ''It's always a job, a good job.''

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