The secret to Harrison Ford’s success and staying power

Harrison Ford, one of Hollywood’s most bankable and most revered stars, has a “very simple” advice to aspiring artists. Or, anyone for that matter who dreams of making it in their chosen profession.

Asked by The STAR on the secret to his staying power, the 80-year-old actor, who’s starred in over 60 films and still counting, said in a recent Zoom chat: “I’m an assistant storyteller. That’s what I do. It’s a service occupation — storytelling. From the time of painting on cave walls, people yearn for stories that help them navigate through the world, through their lives.

“And I love my job. I think I have enormous luck. Much of my success is based on other people’s success and I am so grateful for that.

“But my advice to younger artists is very simple: Don’t try and imitate anyone else’s success. Find it in yourself. It will always be there.

“Use yourself — what you really feel, what you really know, how you bring that as a gift, as an offering to the story.”

The STAR was able to interview Harrison at a virtual roundtable for writers from the APAC region just before his latest film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, rolled into Philippine cinemas early this week.

It’s touted as the fifth and last installment to the saga of the globe-trotting, fedora-wearing and whip-wielding archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones.

When Harrison first embodied the character in 1981 via Raiders of the Lost Ark (directed then by Steven Spielberg and written by George Lucas), he never thought it would become the cross-generational cinema icon that it is now.

One journalist said he first saw Indiana Jones as a kid and he’s watching it now with his own children. One mentioned the impact the franchise made when it starred an actor from India, Amrish Puri, in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom “many, many years ago.” Yours truly remembered having watched it at a time when audiences were still allowed to enter the theater and sit on the floor when it became SRO or “standing room only”.

Director-writer James Mangold during a separate presscon said he grew up admiring Indiana Jones movies and credited them for “shaping my love for filmmaking.”

“Well, I’m surprised. I had not imagined… I mean, we might do one or two depending on the success, but the film was so widely appreciated. The degree of success made us want to bring another story, to visit the character again. But I never thought it would last this long. No idea that we would go this long,” Harrison said in response to a STAR question.

He further shared his thoughts on why the franchise lasted for four decades. “It’s movie-making like it used to be. Real human stories, real adventure, real action without gore. Real contest without too much unnecessary conflict. It’s more about movies, and the pleasure that movie can bring.

“It is about archeology. But there’s such brilliant combinations of the elements about human contact and the importance of getting your life right. I mean, they’re great family movies.”

He said he can only be grateful for the chance to reach a new generation of filmgoers through the franchise. “It’s been a brilliant kind of boost to my career to have made these kinds of family films,” he added.

He also hopes the newest Indiana Jones will be watched inside a cinema. “It would be great to see this again at home, but please take the opportunity to go to a theater. Let’s reinvigorate the movie business.

“It’s really an adjunct to human communication, to getting everybody to feel something in common. There’s so much that drives us apart. What pulls us back together is simple human emotion.”

During the roundtable, his humble beginnings in the industry were brought up when someone asked if he started out as a carpenter.

“I actually started not as a carpenter but as an actor. I came out of college with an interest in theater. I went to Los Angeles. I did a little bit of theater there. And then I was given the opportunity to begin a career in movies. I mean, it has been an incredible journey,” recalled the veteran actor, who went into carpentry after a string of minor TV roles in the late-‘60s to the ‘70s, as per his bio.

“But going back to the carpentry part, one of the things that I understood at a certain point is when I kept doing the same kind of television show that I was doing… that was all that was available to me, these were wonderful opportunities but I was afraid I was gonna wear out my face before I had the chance to do the kind of work that I wanted to do, which was film.

“Now, ironically in television, the writing, has become so fantastic. I mean the opportunities on television are equal with those, I think, in film. But there’s something about being in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and the wonderful sound system and having that common experience.”

Harrison was only 30-something when the world first saw him in dark rooms and large screens as Indiana Jones, his second franchise role after Star Wars. The last time we saw him put on the fedora hat was in 2008 via Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The Dial of Destiny will both feature Indiana Jones in his younger years (thanks to a de-aging technology) and the present-day Indiana Jones who has undergone the passing of time. He is retired from all the adventure and action. Or, at least, until his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) reappears in his life and runs away with a device under his safekeeping, which can alter the course of history to disastrous consequences.

The movie is backdropped by the so-called “space race” between the US and the Soviet Union in the late-’60s. An old nemesis — a former Nazi and now US space program physicist Dr. Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) — is also after the much-coveted device.

Asked about his favorite stunt from the film, Harrison revealed he doesn’t do stunt work.

He explained, “Stunt people do stunts. I do physical acting. Running, jumping, falling down. Fistfights. Rolling down the floor with sweaty men. Stunts are different. Stunts can hurt you and can ruin the opportunity to finish a film.

“You gotta be very careful about what you do. Because you’re ‘disadvantage-ing’ the opportunity for many other people, when you’re doing something outside of your skill range. But when it’s carefully done, when you have really hard-working, good people doing those things, they can bring real pressure and joy to those scenes.”

What also makes The Dial of Destiny more believable is how it reflects where Harrison is at in his life now.

“I’m a different actor now. I’m much older than I was 45 years ago (laughs). Surprise, Math works! But a character that depended on his vigor and his energy and passion, we now see with the ravages of age, somewhat dispirited, a bit broken,” he said of the Indiana Jones audiences will see in The Dial of Destiny.

“But that’s a dramatic avenue to seeing him reinvigorated and rebuilt from the ground up by the character played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who he meets. She comes with a nefarious purpose, he doesn’t know that yet.

“But they’re going on an adventure together and at the end of this, he’s reanimated. He’s able to reconstruct the foundation of his life, his personal life, his life with his wife.

“For me, it’s a beautiful, emotional story and emotions and laughs and action make for a beautiful combination. And when that recipe is measured appropriately, they’re great family films.”

This may be the final bow of Indiana Jones, but there’s no slowing down for Harrison. Sharing how he chooses his projects at this stage of his stellar career, he said, “There are always opportunities to work. But what I’m looking for as I’m always looking for — great stories, great collaborators, ambitious projects, things I’ve not done before.

“I ran into a vein of really good writing with (the comedy series) Shrinking, with (the Western drama) 1923, with Indiana Jones, and even in the Marvel Universe.

“I had worked through the pandemic. I was hungry to work. I really love my work. I’m anxious to get back to work. And I found really great writing, which I cannot resist wanting to be a part of.”