Harrison Ford and Star Wars

[Darth Yan]

I've long heard conflicting things about Harrison Ford and Star Wars. Like that he really seemed to resent being associated with it. Other times I heard that he really liked it. He was pretty enthusiastic about this movie. So is it one or the other, or more complicated?

[Sgt_Artyom]

I'm fairly certain that Ford wanted Solo to die as far back as ESB. Wanted him to go out being the scoundrel he was, thought it would add some emotional weight to the story but Lucas would have none of that.

[Havok]

I think he resented it when people kept asking him about it in the 80s, but then his star really took off and then he appreciated it for what it did for him.

[Abacus]

According to old interviews, he was expecting his character to be killed off in ROTJ, but Lucas re-wrote the story to make it so Han and Leia get together and that Luke and Leia are siblings. He wanted a better send off. The new story allowed him to finally get the death for Han Solo he wanted. Now he can full disconnect from the franchise except for when he cares to show up for events and the like. I'm sure he's much happier now that the movie is complete.

[Crazedwraith]

He always said he'd moved beyond the Solo character and wouldn't do another movie.

Cynically, I'm figuring a few dumptrucks worth of money changed his mind.

[Xisiqomelir]

Cynically, I'm figuring a few dumptrucks worth of money changed his mind.

I'm sure this is true, but less-cynically, he's always been fond of his co-stars and I think he's glad to give them a hand by showing up for this movie.

Carrie Fisher revealed what everyone had suspected for a while, that they'd had an on-set affair. And now, after Carrie Fisher turned her life into a trainwreck, it's cool of Harrison to stop by and help her out.

[Elheru Aran]

I don't really see anything about them having an affair in that particular article, just that they went drinking with the Stones...

Anyway, it's no big secret that Harrison Ford was never particularly hung up on Star Wars. In fact that's become something of a meme for him ("Grumpy Harrison") whenever he appears on talk shows and they razz him about being Han Solo and hating it, and he kinda plays along. With a career as high-profile as his became though, I don't think he particularly cares all that much now. Buckets of money, bit of nostalgia, George Lucas can't write for shit, etcetera.

Really it's not such a bad thing that he's out of the series post VII. He broke his leg on set-- requiring a lengthy delay-- and then he had that nasty plane crash... and he's getting up there... so it's perhaps for the best, especially with an older cast, that they eliminated his character. Would have been awkward if he'd kicked it in the middle of filming the next movie or something. Frankly that's also a risk with Fisher and Hamill, but they're a little younger (IIRC). I'm starting to wonder if they'll pull Billy Dee Williams out of the nowhere just for the hell of it in the next movie, though...

[RogueIce]

I'm starting to wonder if they'll pull Billy Dee Williams out of the nowhere just for the hell of it in the next movie, though...

Leia is suddenly single now...

[Patroklos]

I'd have thought Ford would have learned his lesson after KOTCS. I think he probably did, but like others have said he is really just white knighting for some less successful friends/costars.

That and if somone is going to be Han, it might as well be him. This is a guy who wanted to protect his character so much he wished him dead at the end of ROTJ. And history has proven him right on both of his iconic roles.

It is odd that they brought him in after not just KOTCS, but he looked like an outclassed grandpain that turd Hollywood Homicide many years before that. His last credible action role was Air Force One and he was supposed to the long shot action grandpa in that one, as in cast for that, 20 years before TFA.

[Havok]

According to old interviews, he was expecting his character to be killed off in ROTJ, but Lucas re-wrote the story to make it so Han and Leia get together and that Luke and Leia are siblings. He wanted a better send off. The new story allowed him to finally get the death for Han Solo he wanted. Now he can full disconnect from the franchise except for when he cares to show up for events and the like. I'm sure he's much happier now that the movie is complete.

No, he felt Han should have died in Empire. That said, I don't think Ford actually cared enough to be in the movie just so he could get Han killed. And how does he "fully disconnect from the franchise"? You think that is up to him?

[Galvatron]

I think he resented it when people kept asking him about it in the 80s, but then his star really took off and then he appreciated it for what it did for him.

Yeah, and a little of this too: Harrison Ford Was Paid Over 50x More Than ‘Star Wars’ Co-Stars

[Batman]

Well in all fairness he easily had 50 times Mark Hammill's screen-time.

[Q99]

I've long heard conflicting things about Harrison Ford and Star Wars. Like that he really seemed to resent being associated with it. Other times I heard that he really liked it. He was pretty enthusiastic about this movie. So is it one or the other, or more complicated?

Many actors who's careers are dominated by a role have mixed feelings, often a negative phase that swings back around with time. See Leonard Nimoy, and heck, a lot of the Trek people.


The life cycle is- Love it > Live in it's shadow and hate it > Break free and do other stuff, soften some > Come back around and embrace it.

Give or take.

[Guardsman Bass]

I can't blame him if he didn't care much for it later in life. You do a couple cheesy space movies in the late 1970s/early 1980s, then go on to a massive movie career with dozens of films . . . but you still got people bothering you about the cheesy space movies thirty years later.

[Galvatron]

So this kid made a bunch of Harrison Ford impression videos on YouTube in 2008 and now he's acting in a Ford movie playing Ford's character at a young age.



Han Solo spin-off material?

[Rogue 9]

He can do an okay impression (the inflection slipped a little in a couple of places, but not bad at all), but whether or not he can act an original role remains to be seen, or I suppose did until The Age of Adaline came out. I'd never even heard of the movie; I suppose whether or not Disney will consider him depends greatly on how he did in it.

[lGrand Anhoop]

I can't blame him if he didn't care much for it later in life. You do a couple cheesy space movies in the late 1970s/early 1980s, then go on to a massive movie career with dozens of films . . . but you still got people bothering you about the cheesy space movies thirty years later.

But the even cheesier Indiana Jones he's still completely into, eh?


If you watch through some old interviews, or at least those I've seen, there's a clear shift of attitude before the 3rd movie came out - priorly, he had this charmer persona and came off very enthusiastic and invested in the series, saying things like this helped him get new roles, but it was the series itself that he enjoyed and not just the opportunities it provided.

Then you watch that Letterman itnerview and he's like "yep; the story conclude; here" - clearly not particularly about being stuck with a bunch of furballs in the woods.

In the aftermath, if you go through various interviews of his since then, he comes as rather grumpy and cynical (though not too much), but every once in a while he ges serious, seemingly reluctantly so, and praises the franchise or his luck having been involved in it.
Apparently, Jedi made a huge impact on his outlook, the way the LOST finale made a lot of fans forget about years of fascination and rant at the "scam" and whatnot - but the enthusiasm didn't disappear, just disappear below a surface of irritation at how it all ended.

Also, he's an introvert by all accounts, and doesn't particularly enjoy the attention from "the fandom".



So that's what I think of the matter, based on what I've seen of Harrison Ford.
I think a lot of people are all too glad to jump on the "Alec / Ford hate Star Wars" bandwagon, whether "haters" who want to make fun of the series by pointing at "respected actors" who "realize what it is", or fans who want to show themselves as mature and levelheaded, and entirely capable of acknowledging that the respected actors who played their favorite characters, totally thought SW was utter shite.

RLM are among the people who've jumped on the Alec wagon, and keep riding it mindlessly - with all the "now that I'm adult and understand" smugness that you might expect.
However, looking through the interviews of either, a mixed / cognitively dissonant image at worst is what you'll find.

In the same bit where Guinness recounts his infamous story with that kid, and calls SW "childish fantasy", he also says how it was "refreshing, had good morals and was a lot of fun" - and that's until you see his reaction from '77, 100% enthusiastic in one famous interview, and with a bit of "some bad dialogue and space battle was a bit too long" added in a different one.

[Elfdart]

Ford had a rather unpleasant time doing TESB, according to the Rinzler books. Combined with the fact that he was only under contract for two movies, and had just landed roles in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blade Runner and it looked like he was done with the series. This interview with Howard Kazanjian (who produced Raiders and Jedi) spells out how he was brought back to do ROTJ:

One of the things that had to be done before Return of the Jedi was shot was bringing Harrison Ford (who had just a contract for two movies) back. Did you play a part in getting him back? And how was it achieved since Ford once stated that he was ‘the expendable one’.

I played a very important part in bringing Harrison back for Return of the Jedi. Harrison, unlike Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill signed only a two picture contract. That is why he was frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back. When I suggested to George we should bring him back, I distinctly remember him saying that Harrison would never return. I said what if I convinced him to return. George simply replied that we would then write him in to Jedi. I had just recently negotiated his deal for Raiders of the Lost Ark with Phil Gersh of the Gersh Agency. I called Phil who said he would speak with Harrison. When I called back again, Phil was on vacation. David, his son, took the call and we negotiated Harrison's deal. When Phil returned to the office several weeks later he called me back and said I had taken advantage of his son in the negotiations. I had not. But agents are agents.

Small wonder then that Ford wasn't too keen on reprising the role.

The end result of the film is what matters -not the opinions of the cast, crew or others involved in making it. Alec Guinness thought movies in general were beneath him, preferring to do theater. Since he was still speaking favorably about the movies and Lucas as late as 1984 (at least publicly), I would guess he soured on the whole Obi-Wan Kenobi thing when a decade later he was still getting fan mail by the pound every day, saying he dreaded the "thud" of the postman's delivery. Lord knows I've been turned off by some of the fanbase and I had nothing to do with the movies.

But so what if he did think badly of the roles he was best known for? Bridge on the River Kwai is still a great movie even though Guinness hated that one too. Ian McKellen summed it up rather well when he said he had no problems with playing Magneto or Gandalf or characters in other blockbusters because he's not a snob like Guinness.

The one that really cracks me up is Terence Stamp (Valorum) and Peter Serafinowicz (voice of Darth Maul) bagging on TPM years after the movie came out. Both badmouthed the movie and the man who made it. Many a Stoklasshole has seized on this as proof that TPM and George Lucas suck. Want to know who else Stamp has dumped on? How about John Schlessinger, who directed him in Far From The Madding Crowd -the last performance Stamp gave where he wasn't a ham of Shatnerian proportions. As for Serafinowicz, funny how seventeen years later the thing he's still best known for in his career is reading four of five lines in a recording studio. So the opinions of Stamp* and Serafinowicz reflect more poorly on them than on the movie or the director.

* Stamp moaned that he had to look at a wooden post where Natalie Portman was supposed to stand in the landing platform scene [2:31], since she had been given the day off [probably after her eye was injured on set].



You can see where it looks like he's half-heartedly reading from a cue card, and it's obvious Portman was added in later (where she smiles at Annie). So, does he have a point here? Only if you ignore all the other actors who were on set in the scene, none of whom phoned it in like Stamp. I guess Liam Neeson, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan MacGregor and Keira Knightley weren't good enough to stir his thespian talents enough to read two whole lines convincingly. Clearly, they were unworthy to do a scene with the great Terence Stamp.

So fuck him.

[Galvatron]

The one that really cracks me up is Terence Stamp (Valorum) and Peter Serafinowicz (voice of Darth Maul) bagging on TPM years after the movie came out. Both badmouthed the movie and the man who made it.

I never heard Peter Serafinowicz's criticisms until now. I LOL'd.

[Vympel]

I had no idea that was Peter Serafinowicz. He's one of those actors you know the face of, but not the name.

"I had these lines ... there were originally some more lines ..." lol.

Oh my god! I forgot about the tone poems! And he still remembers it line for line.

[JamesStaley]

Question: "Is Han Solo REALLY DEAD (this time)" ??

I'm asking not from the point of view from the movie, but rather how Harrison Ford is feeling right now. Has anyone heard any rumors, gossip, articles, etc. about him coming back for another movie? Is there a contract with him for more movies? Or was that TRUELY the death of Han Solo, may he (finally) rest in peace?

[Joun_Lord]

Question: "Is Han Solo REALLY DEAD (this time)" ??

I'm asking not from the point of view from the movie, but rather how Harrison Ford is feeling right now. Has anyone heard any rumors, gossip, articles, etc. about him coming back for another movie? Is there a contract with him for more movies? Or was that TRUELY the death of Han Solo, may he (finally) rest in peace?

His death is probably currently in Schrodinger's Box alongside the cat. He is both alive and dead with no confirmation either way because the studio probably doesn't want to say for certain that Solo is ded so as to have an opening should they want to bring him back and whether Ford wants to play the character again.

This is probably a bit like the situation with Spork after Wraith of KHANNNNNN!!!! KHANNNNNNNN!!!! were he was dead but because Nimoy enjoyed the experience so much they brought him back. If Ford is down with another go, if playing alongside the new tykes and his old comrades was fun, they could easily say Darth Emo took his body and stuck it in a bacta tank or he got cyberized Darth Vader style or they make a clone or him getting killed was an illusion by Ren to break the spirit of Rey or he was really a force user so he can be a force ghost or whatever.

If they want him back they can write him back.

I hope they don't. It would feel cheap. One thing I really hate about Marvel movies and the recent Treks is deaths do not seem to stick or even last very long. If they went through the trouble of killing him, tugging on the heart strings of fans, stick with it rather then coping out and making those emotions for nothing

[RogueIce]

I would imagine, if Harrison Ford did additional movies, he would be in as basically a flashback cameo or something similar.

[Elheru Aran]

Flashbacks have never been a big thing in Wars. The only one I can really remember might be Anakin's dreams in AOTC. It's possible they might have a Force vision of some kind like Luke in the Dagobah cave.

I don't think Ford is likely to return, though. He might lend his voice if they do an animated show set in the inter-movie period, but that's about it, I suspect.

[Lord Revan]

there's always the possibility of a Hologram message using fotage not shot previously.

Also TFA had sort of a flash back with Spoiler

Rey's force vision