Harrison Ford On Being 83, Loving ‘Shrinking’, ‘1923’, His Iconic Film Roles & Naming The Exec Who Said, “You’re Never Going To Make It In This Business” – The Actor’s Side

Harrison Ford winces a bit when I introduce him as a movie legend, but the fact is that in a world that overuses that term, Ford really is one. He joins me for the latest episode of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side, the occasion being his first-ever Emmy nomination at age 83, for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series as Paul on Shrinking, and also coming off a two-season run as Jacob Dutton in 1923 opposite his Mosquito Coast co-star Helen Mirren.

When I ask about the Emmy nom, he tells me I sounded surprised it was his first one. The answer is simple. He hasn’t done TV until these two acclaimed shows came along, though he freely talks about the beginnings of his career under contract at Columbia and Universal when he did do shows including Gunsmoke, Kung Fu, Dynasty, Love American Style, The Virginian, The FBI and on and on. That of course was a different time, and Ford talks in detail about loving the pace of TV now, plus the roles on Shrinking and 1923, how they came about and what he likes about doing them. We also talk about the storyline on Shrinking, which has his character revealing a Parkinson’s diagnosis, as well as how proud he was to work with Michael J. Fox, who did a small guest shot on the series.

But there is so much more as Ford talks about some of his most iconic roles including revisiting characters more than once including Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, Han Solo and Rick Deckard. We talk about being Commander-in-Chief in this year’s Captain America: Brave New World, where his President Thaddeus Ross morphs into Red Hulk, and Air Force One, which Trump has said he admires. Ford has a succinct answer for that (!). He also talks about roles he originated that have been turned into TV shows like Presumed Innocent and The Mosquito Coast, why he never cared if a movie he was in was successful or not (“I did them for the experience of making them”) and his key desire in the business: “I always wanted to be a character actor”, he says.

When I list off the famous directors with whom he has worked, he has a choice anecdote about working for Francis Coppola in Apocalypse Now and The Conversation, the latter sparking memory of a story about how he turned the tables on Coppola by secretly collaborating with the film’s costume designer in order to enhance his role as “young man.” Ask Ford anything and he has remarkably perfect recall — unless he chooses not to have that such as when I inquired about being in “The Star Wars Holiday Special” — about the earliest days of his Hollywood career including being dropped by Columbia and naming the executive there who told him, “You are never going to make it in this business.”

In terms of recall, I tell him about showing the James Coburn 1966 movie Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round in my screening series, which was sponsored by the James Coburn Foundation. To my surprise, Ford shows up onscreen as a bellhop. I point this out that he had one line in his movie debut, but he instantly corrects me by holding up two fingers. When I ask him if he can still do the lines, he does them.

To watch our conversation and to get the “actor’s side” of things from Harrison Ford, just click on the link above.

Join me every week this Emmy season for a new edition of The Actor’s Side.