"I do not plan my career"

15.9.2000
HÖRZU
(translated by YG)

Harrison Ford He played men with heart and tough guys. He always fought for justice. On the occasion of his new movie "What Lies Beneath", the actor tells us what's important to him today. For 34 years, Harrison Ford has always been playing the "good guys". Be it in "Star Wars" or in "Indiana Jones", in "Blade Runner", "The Fugitive" or as CIA agent Jack Ryan in "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games". In his new picture "What Lies Beneath", the 58-year-old is now showing his darker sides. On the occasion of the movie's start, HÖRZU met the actor in Los Angeles for an interview.

Q: You are the leading man in seven of the twenty biggest blockbusters of all time and the American cinema owners voted you "Star of the Century" in 1994...

A: Stop, that was last century! (laughs) You know, I just had the luck of working together with good directors, and the scripts were substantial. Really solid entertainment. Nevertheless such a success was unforeseeable.

Q: You emphasize the term "entertainment". So you wouldn't talk about art in your profession?

A: No. Acting is a craft. The aspect of art is more related to the work of the director. I only possess a certain ability to immerse in roles, to bring them to life. I serve, you know? I serve the story that we tell and the audience that comes into the theater to be entertained. Art sounds a bit ... well, pretentious in my profession.

Q: When you are talking about a certain ability...

A: I mean that I am able to concentrate quickly and intensely on a scene. When the director shouts "Action!", I'm there, no matter how chaotic the set may be. And in the evening I turn off. That's a kind of talent, too. I don't take the role home with me. I think sometimes people imagine my life too fantastically. I live, work, care for my family like everybody else...

Q: ... and fly economy class like we all do.

A: Yeah, of course! (laughs)

Q: ... if you're not flying yourself. During your last hobby flights there occurred two crash-landings, though.

A: The newspapers blew this up. The first time it was a mechanical problem, the second time not even worth reporting. Of course, when a "star" falls from the sky, it makes headlines.

Q: You are married with the script writer of "E.T.", Melissa Mathison. What does your "everyman everyday life" on the ranch in Wyoming look like?

A: It's the place where I like best to be. But during the school year we live in Manhattan with the kids - Malcolm is now 13, my daughter Georgia is ten. My wife works as well, so that we care for the kids on equal parts. As you know, I still have children from my first marriage, but Benjamin and Willard are long since independent. I find the educational part of the job of being a parent highly complicated. There's rarely a feeling of achievement. For example, I don't understand my son's math homework anymore. Sometimes I play with my daughter and her barbie dolls. That works surprisingly well!

Q: This idyllic family life is similar to the initial situation of "What Lies Beneath". You play a scientist who is married to the former cellist Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer). Your only daughter leaves the house to go to college somewhere else. Claire is left behind - and the idyll darkens. She hears voices, sees ghosts, suspects a neighbor of having murdered his wife.

A: This initial situation immediately intrigued me as I read the script. I found it fascinating how paradise slowly darkens from this woman's point of view. These are wonderfully written parts. I understand this Dr Norman Spencer whom I play. By the way, Michelle felt the same way. "What Lies Beneath" is a thriller that makes use of all the technical meanings that Alfred Hitchcock didn't have at his disposal.

Q: Now you are talking about the special effects of the movie. Otherwise there are always motives borrowed from thriller classics: whole passages remind of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" or "Vertigo", of Henri-Georges Clouzots "The Devilish" [??] or of Adrian Lyne's "Fatal Attraction".

A: That was an hommage to Hitchcock by my director. But these allusions are never an end in themselves. On the contrary. With each cutting phase, Robert Zemeckis mercilessly kills just our "darlings", those scenes with which we all "fell in love for no reason", as he calls it. Everything that is superfluous to the story, he destroys selflessly.

Q: Was it similarly "selfless" of you to play the bad guy for the first time after a thirty year hero career?

A: I wanted to break away from the audience's expectations and to broaden my range of roles. Moreover, good scripts are rare and - don't forget - I only work once a year. I choose what intrigues me. I don't plan my career like a bureaucrat. When you're talking about the "bad guy", by the way: Spencer isn't one in the beginning. That's what drags the viewer into the story. I think you can understand this man, his feelings, his fears - and those of his wife. In this respect, our movie deals more with the characters than Hitchcock's movies. I must admit that Hitchcock never really shocked me, never really shook me. His movies are plot machines. The characters only play a supporting role. "What Lies Beneath" proceeds the other way round. It heightens the suspense through the psychology of the characters.

Q: Claire is being haunted by the ghost of a murdered woman. How do explain such visions?

A: I don't believe in ghosts and supernatural things. To me, these are fantasies of the mind. We do not know enough about the chemistry and the functions of the brain or about the kind of consciousness of reality that they ensure. I think it's possible that our psyche creates such apparitions.

Q: Speaking of the brain: You are said to have no more memory of the bed scene with Michelle Pfeiffer.

A: (laughs) That's not true. But people always think it's because of the mutual attraction when such a scene is believable. They don't get it that it does not only have to be well cast, but rather well written. During the bed scene we can hear the neighbors moan and accept the challenge: we can do it louder! But if you listen carefully, our dialogue at this moment doesn't refer to the bed but to our domestic life and our common history. Only so the scene becomes emotionally believable - and thus dramatic. That I may kiss Michelle is of course a bonus.

Q: You refused to reprise the role of Jack Ryan in the next film version of a Tom Clancy novel. Why?

A: The script I was given to read by far didn't have the dramatic potential of the first two movies. Ben Affleck will be taking the role. I wish him all the best.

Q: Will there be a fourth sequel of the "Indiana Jones" series?

A: I met with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg about three months ago and we discussed several ideas. I think we basically agree what a fourth part could principally look like. And I would be glad if it came about.

[About the movie: Excellently cast and directed psychothriller]

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