Action hero breaks new ground in suspense thriller

July 19th-2000
The Ottawa Citizen
by Jamie Portman

Harrison Ford says choosing to perform in What Lies Beneath was easy because he got to work with leading lady Michelle Pfeiffer.

BEVERLY HILLS, California - Harrison Ford has this problem. So do the reporters joining him on this Sunday morning to chat about his new movie, What Lies Beneath.  The problem is this: How to discuss the film without giving the store away and infuriating the fans who are expected to turn out in droves once this eerie suspense thriller arrives in cinemas on Friday?  

The 58-year-old actor is quietly amused that the assorted scribes confronting him will face all sorts of constraints in writing about a movie fuelled by unexpected plot twists and blinding shocks and surprises.  "But you'll still have plenty of things to write about, I guess -- I hope," he says reassuringly. "And if we last long enough, you can write about it again in a couple of weeks."  Ford's point is that What Lies Beneath is the sort of movie -- like Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction -- that should trigger a lot of debate long after it opens. And while he realizes the need to tiptoe around the subject matter, he will go on record in saying that it's unlike anything he has done before.

Ford plays a dedicated doctor and research scientist whose seemingly stable existence is jolted when his wife, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, begins complaining of strange and inexplicable happenings in their rambling Vermont home. She hears mysterious voices, a door keeps opening and slamming shut, a bathtub mysteriously fills with water and she keeps seeing the haunted and tormented image of a young woman.  These spectral events threaten their marriage, lead to unpleasant revelations from the past and eventually trigger a night of violence and horror.

What Lies Beneath is the latest film from director Robert Zemeckis, the highly bankable filmmaker who has swelled Hollywood's coffers with such huge hits as Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Romancing the Stone and the three Back to the Future movies.  Still, Ford is under no illusion about the fickleness of today's moviegoing public. His previous film, Random Hearts, was a major disappointment, although he insists he's still glad he did it. "I'm not displeased with that film. I won't say that it didn't work; I will say that it didn't make a lot of money." But yes, he did expect it to do better.

"Sometimes people want to go and sometimes they don't," he shrugs. "That's the way the free-market economy works."  Nevertheless, Ford has good vibes about What Lies Beneath. That's because he's been sneaking into preview screenings. He's heard audience members shriek out loud. He's seen them cover their eyes. But he was also having positive feelings from the first time he read Clark Gregg's screenplay.  "I thought it was a well told, suspenseful, scary movie. The character obviously appealed to me because he was different from what I have lately, done or been known to do. But there was also the opportunity to work with Bob Zemeckis and Michelle, both of whom I'd always wanted to work with. So when this came along, it was a very easy decision for me to make."

However, Ford knows he's taking a risk with this project.  "The risk here is that people will say: 'Hey! This is not what we want from you; we know where we can find the people that do this sort of thing and you should do something else.' But hopefully, that won't be the case, because it's always been my ambition to play different kinds of characters in different kinds of films. This is perhaps my broadest departure so far ... but I love complication, I love an edge to the characters I play."  He has always contended he has no long-range career plan. He says he never even pauses to take stock of his career. Then he wryly adds that outside observers periodically do try to take stock of him -- "and I have found it hard to recognize who that person is." When asked to assess his career at this point, the reply is brief. "I'm extraordinarily lucky to still be here."  He does admit that continuing success doesn't happen by accident. But again, no plan is involved -- just a series of decisions he hopes are sensible. For example, despite the successes of Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, he will not again play author Tom Clancy's intrepid hero, Jack Ryan. On the other hand, he does want to do another Indiana Jones movie.

"I've given up on the Jack Ryan character. There are any number of reasons, but if I'm not doing it, there's no reason to be talking about it."  But he has "a very strong ambition" to reprise the role of archeologist adventurer Indiana Jones for director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas. All he needs is the right script. "I'd love to work on that character again. I'd love to work with Steven and George again."  Ford doesn't much like dwelling on the past, and never watches his old movies. His main concern is the present and future. Which brings him back to the subject he has managed to avoid talking about for much of this session: What Lies Beneath.

He thinks one of the reasons Random Hearts failed is that it didn't attract the biggest filmgoing group -- young males under 25. He thinks it will be different with What Lies Beneath. "I expect this will cross over a lot of genre barriers and a lot of age barriers, because it is a very effective entertainment and a very scary movie -- and I think people do love scary movies, especially when they can intellectually and emotionally participate to the extent allowed by this film. This is not just a dumb violence thing which is predictable in every way. So that's why I'm hoping."

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