'Sabrina' star Harrison Ford -- a Bogie for the '90s?

12/15/1995
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
Rea, Steven

He's been a stoic CIA guy, a wisecracking intergalactic space-jockey and a smart-aleck archaeologist adventurer. He's played a lawyer accused of murdering his mistress (``Presumed Innocent'') and a surgeon accused of murdering his wife (``The Fugitive''). But with the exception of ``Working Girl'' _ in which he was caught in the amatory crossfire between Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver _ Harrison Ford has never really done light romantic comedy.

``Well, I think in a way `Regarding Henry' is also a romantic comedy,'' Ford begs to differ, referring to the 1991 Mike Nichols-directed drama about a no-nonsense attorney who gets shot in the head, has amnesia, and turns out to be a better, more caring guy for his ordeal.

But real, all-out romantic comedy?

``It's just been hard for me to find the kind of comedy that has a similar ambition to my own personal ambition,'' explains the 53-year-old movie star. ``Most comedy that's popular now is of the slapstick variety, which I love to see. I love stupid, I just don't want to do it.''

``Sabrina,'' on the other hand, was something Ford found ``more intellectually engaging.'' Sydney Pollack's remake of the 1954 Audrey Hepburn classic stars Ford in the Humphrey Bogart role of a rich and serious businessman, Greg Kinnear in William Holden's part as the younger, playboy brother, and Julia Ormond as the chauffeur's daughter and object of the siblings' affections _ and deceptions.

It was producer Scott Rudin (``The Firm,'' ``The Addams Family'') who approached Ford with the project a few years back. ``In my ignorance, I had not seen the original,'' says Ford, on the phone from Los Angeles on the eve of ``Sabrina's'' star-studded Hollywood premiere. The film opened everywhere Friday.

``I knew that there was a film called `Sabrina,' but I hadn't seen it. I read the screenplay, which I found charming and witty, and it had a romantic relationship in it, and that's what I was looking for.''

Finally, Ford _ who says that he's never really been a movie ``buff'' and hates when people asks him what he's seen lately because he's hardly seen anything _ took a look at the Billy Wilder picture.

``I felt that I couldn't talk to Sydney intelligently without seeing the original. I found it charming. But it was in and of its time, which was a long time ago. But it did seem to be that at its core, there was a fairy-tale story that could bear a retelling.''

And how did he find Bogart, another star known more for serious drama and sober-faced action-adventures than for jaunty boy-meets-girl larks?

``I didn't put myself in a position to judge his performance,'' Ford says, tap-dancing around the question like a wary politician. ``It was no part of what I was about, when I saw the film. I don't worry about imitation because I don't have his _ I don't have his box to work out of. I don't have his experience. I don't have his personality. I have mine. So we're necessarily different.''

But nobody's suggesting imitation. Simply, what did he think of Bogart's performance?

``I was freed of any apprehension because I didn't allow the notion that we would be compared,'' he obfuscates. ``It would spoil my pleasure. I found the movie pleasurable. I did not assess his role in that pleasure, because I knew that we were going to reconstitute the recipe.''

``I did not assess his role in that pleasure ...'' Lighten up, guy!

Jackson Hole, Wyo.'s most famous citizen has grown a mustache since making ``Sabrina'' and is working out of New York these days, preparing to shoot ``Devil's Own,'' a drama in which he'll play a New York City detective who unwittingly takes an IRA terrorist (Brad Pitt) under his wing. Alan J. Pakula, who helmed Ford in ``Presumed Innocent'' (``I'm very pleased with that film,'' the actor says) will direct, after several other directors _ including James Foley (``Glengarry Glen Ross'') _ passed, fearful of the controversial subject matter.

And after that, Ford plans to add one more light romance to his filmography: ``Six Days and Seven Nights,'' with Ivan Reitman (``Dave'') directing. Oddly enough, Ford says it's in the spirit of another Bogart classic _ ``The African Queen.''

``You know, it's a mismatched romance kind of story. It's set in the Caribbean, though.''

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Harrison Ford Web is making such material available in an effort to promote research. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.