June 2003 Hollywood Homocide : An Interview with Harrison Ford

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Interviewed by Godfrey Powell Hollywood Homocide: An Interview with Harrison Ford With all the $20 million dollars players (Cruise, Smith, Carrey) out there waiting for the next big project and payday, if there was one of them who likes to take risks, it’s Harrison Ford. Having starred in some of the biggest films of all-time, it’s safe to say he’s made his mark in “the game”. Last year, he took a big risk in playing a Russian sea captain in K-19: The Widowmaker and lost. The film tanked at the box office. That’s okay. Everyone’s entitled to a bad day at the office. Now, he’s taking another big risk and that is being in a comedy film and in a buddy movie. In an interview with blackfilm.com, Harrison Ford talks about his role in the comedy film, Hollywood Homicide and being on low mileage in the business. GP: Hollywood Homicide! Exciting? A new change right? HF: Unn-hunh! I hadn’t done a comedy in awhile..the last was Six Days, Seven Nights unless you count K-19 (The Widowmaker) which a lot of people do. So I was looking for a comedy and this idea came along which seemed like a really strong concept. So I signed on. GP: Ron Shelton (Writer/Director of Hollywood Homicide) has a large affinity for cops and telling stories of their personal lives. HF: Yeah, it’s generally known in Los Angeles that cops have two jobs. It’s very common. Cops and firefighters have second jobs. GP: There are a great number of musicians in the movie such as Master P, Kurupt, Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson. Can you talk about working with them. HF: They were great! Master P is a one of a kind character. He is very inventive, and you never knew what he was going to say next. Kurrupt is funny as he can be. Unfortunately, when we went to the PG-13 version we lost every other line of his. Maybe every other word! Smokey is as charming as he could be and Gladys is wonderful with a good presence. GP: You mentioned that there was an R-cut of the film. Was there anything else lost when you went to the PG-13 version? HF: Umm, no. Well, some language. Some more graphic shots of the opening murder scene and……..a little bit of Lena Olin in one love scene. GP: How much of the stunt work did you do in this film? HF: Well, I do all the work that you can see my face. I did not do the stunt where I fall over the car door. I had already torn my hamstring anyway. I do most of it but I don’t do stunts. Stunt guys do stunts. I do physical acting. GP: You are in the latest edition of People Magazine and had an appearance on the MTV music awards. Are you becoming more accessible to the media than usual? HF: I haven’t seen the People Magazine yet but I think I was fairly careful. GP: The “love” word was mentioned. (Regarding his relationship with Calista Flockhart) HF: The “L” word. I mean, one shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. We’ve been living together for a year now. Y’know. You could have imagined that there was an appropriate affection. GP: Yeah, not just splitting the rent right? HF: Right, yeah, that’s good. Yeah! GP: You’ve worked with a tremendous amount of great directors. Is there anyone you would like to work with that you haven’t worked with yet? HF: I look for work and the director together and to see where I can add value. I’ve worked with many great directors and many of them more than once, which is always interesting. For instance, I’m looking forward to working with Steven (Spielberg) again on Indy (Indiana Jones). As for working with other directors, I just don’t think that abstractly about work. GP: On your MTV appearance, you quoted many of your most famous lines such as “Get off my plane” (from Air Force One), what is personally your favorite line? HF: I would normally say I don’t have one but then one just jumped into my head which is Indiana Jones’ line, “Its not the years, it’s the mileage.” That describes me now: I may be old but I’m relatively low mileage. GP: A lot of actors who are called upon to play heroic parts say that the hero is not what they are drawn to play…. HF: No, that’s what I say. If they say that it’s because they’ve heard me say it. No, this question has been raised many, many times. I always say that what I’m interested in playing is a lawyer, a CIA analyst or policeman or somebody else that gets themselves in a bad situation and manages to get out of it. And sometimes those actions involve selfless behavior and self sacrifice and putting oneself in danger; and sometimes a matter of wit and intelligence. You don’t think of it as playing a hero. What are the attributes of playing a hero? It’s much more important to nominate the attributes of a lawyer, a heart surgeon whose wife is killed and setting out to find the person that killed his wife. Is that heroic or is that just a practical matter? GP: Thank you. HF: It’s my pleasure.