What, me, a celebrity?

02 October 2002
Channel News Asia
By Elisa Chia

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, yet I couldn’t feel more alive than ever.

Really, it’s hard not to be excited when Hollywood superstar Harrison Ford will soon appear before me.
“Any minute now,” purrs a publicist who’s trying to calm the dozen journalists at the luxurious Essex House hotel in New York City.

“I hope he’s not his grumpy self today,” someone says aloud.

“Do you think Calista (Flockhart) will be around?” asks another.

“No way!” someone else chuckles.

The exchange — and gossip — continues for another five minutes until the publicist sashays into the room again. This time, Ford is behind her.

Wearing a black polo t-shirt that’s not tucked into his trousers, the dreamy-looking Ford seems like he has emerged from slumberland.

I stare at him for a while, wondering: “So, this is Han Solo/Indiana Jones?”
Making his film debut in 1966, the 60-year-old Chicago native with the ruggedly handsome face is one of the world’s most celebrated movie stars — with some truly iconic performances to his credit.

That Ford is screen legend is an indisputable fact.

He is Han Solo.

He is Indiana Jones.

(By the way, Ford is due to re-team with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for a fourth Indiana Jones instalment, never mind that he’ll be a grandfatherly 63 when Indy 4 debuts in 2005.)

But today, he’s here to talk about being Captain Alexei Vostrikov, a heartless taskmaster at the helm of a Russian nuclear submarine on its maiden voyage to carry out missile tests in K-19: The Widowmaker.

Indeed, the character is a departure from his usual “blemishless” action hero persona. But Ford isn’t afraid that he will lose his fan base.

“I understand what they’re used to. I know what they like. But I also know I have the opportunity to introduce them to a new taste,” he says diplomatically.

“I can compel them to think about something that they might not want to think about because they are familiar with me, they’ve experienced me. So, it’s a wonderful opportunity … a powerful relationship that I can use.”

Ah, such is the power of a “celebrity”, even though it’s a word he hates.

“I don’t like the notion of being a celebrity. I’m not very thrilled that we’re obsessed with celebrity. I like very much having success which allows me to make choices in my life. I mean, I’m an actor. This is what I do. Can I please do it?” he booms, repeating his stand for the umpteenth time.

“I didn’t agree to make my private life public. I didn’t agree to discuss my life in public. I didn’t agree to live my life in public. The fact that it happens, I understand. But I don’t have to participate.”

But is it something that he is getting used to?

Ford frowns and groans in despair: “Apparently not.”

Though he’s stepped out in public with his new girlfriend Calista Flockhart, the titular star of TV’s Ally McBeal, he has refused to speak about her to the media.

Ford raised eyebrows in Hollywood last year when he separated from his wife of 19 years, screenwriter Melissa Mathison. The talk is that Ford and Flockhart, who is 23 years younger, may get married around Christmas.

Besides, the famously tight-lipped leading man usually doesn’t grant interviews unless it is work-related — in this case, to plug K-19. He tells us that all he cares about is that the films he churns out are successful, although the success is but a means to an end.

“Successful films allow me the choice of making other kinds of films, allow me to fund projects that engage and stimulate me. And it allows me to continue to enjoy my job.”

Mind you, this is the man who has turned down, for better or for worse, lead roles in The Perfect Storm (George Clooney benefited), Civil War drama The Patriot (Mel Gibson stepped in), Oscar-winning drama Traffic (the role filled by Michael Douglas), and the film in which Russell Crowe seduced Meg Ryan, aka Proof Of Life (for which Crowe should thank him).

In K-19, you get a preview of how Ford might look when he is 80.

“That’s how my makeup man thinks I’ll look. But I think I’m gonna be much better looking,” he says, smiling confidently.

“I’m still a leading man, but I am an older leading man. So, that doesn’t bother me. I never have had any problem. And I don’t have a problem now. Till I cease to be useful … till I cease to get parts that interest me, then I’ll stop working.”

And when he does retire, Ford — who has four children and one grandchild from two past marriages — intends to spend his golden years playing chess ... and flying.

With a laugh, the licensed jet pilot says: “I’ll carry the chessboard and play on the airplane.”

It’s likely that he will continue to champion environmental causes and, literally, save the world — like he does in the movies.

“No,” he jumps in to correct you. “You can’t save the world in movies. But you can sell a lot of movie tickets.”

Obviously, it’s meant as a joke — but there’s no smile forthcoming.
You get his point immediately. He’s not about to take the reel life too seriously. Asked if he has a personal favourite among the 36 Hollywood movies he has made, Ford refuses to play along.

“They’re not all the same, but there’s not one that’s dearer to me than the other,” is Ford’s straightforward answer. “It’s up to the audience to choose. I’ll just make a movie, then another movie, then another movie …”

Feeling a little more daring, I try slipping in a personal question: “Who is dearest to you?”

You hope to hear something about Flockhart and whether wedding bells will ring by the year-end.

“My family,” he shoots back and gives me a how-dare-you glare.

“Last question?”

Err … no thanks.

Things settle back down and he settles into answering more questions — not about being a movie star, but about being Harrison Ford, the actor.

At the end of the interview, I ask if he would autograph my press kit. And you know what? Ford very graciously obliges, with a smile.

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