Harrison Ford on an emotional Han Solo and the meaning of ‘Chewie, we’re home’
LOS ANGELES — Harrison Ford will see you now.
Even for an old hand at this, it’s a gut check to walk up on Captain Solo, Indiana Jones,
President Jack Ryan, Rick Deckard, or in real-life terms, the guy who last summer took a vintage warbird hundreds of feet into the air, plowed it into a golf course green and lived to tell about it.
So you just try to be cool. I dunno, fly casual.
You’re at Global Press Day for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and a spindly woman with a clipboard and headset beckons you from a wide, bright hallway of the sprawling Los Angeles Convention Center into one of its hangar-sized conference rooms.
It’s the kind of space where a real estate huckster might pitch several hundred get-rich hopefuls on any given Sunday, but today it’s dark and empty, save for the warm glow of a shaded lamp and two plush leather chairs in the far corner. Ford is standing over there, bent slightly forward, arms at his sides, face set in a grave scowl.
Even at this distance he’s fixed his eyes on yours, a gaze he won't break for the duration of the ride. You meet it the best you can.
During the long walk over, the door clicks closed behind you. No publicists eavesdropping this time. It’s just you and him and the deathly quiet of the dim, empty, cavernous room.
Twenty paces and one long, firm handshake later, you’re on.
Good afternoon sir, I’m Josh Dickey, from Mashable.
What the hell is a Mashable?
[Thinking he said "How is Mashable"] It’s great!
No, I said WHAT.
Oh! Oh. It’s a news website geared toward Millennials.
[Sitting down, leaning in] Ah. Good. Well let’s make some shit up for them then.
We’ll call them Millennial Falcons [you pronounce it like the raptor].
You mean FAHL-con.
Oh Sorry. FAHL-con. You would know better than I.
I wouldn’t, because J.J. says I say it both ways. I said what is it, Falcon or FAHL-con? He says "It doesn’t matter, you say it both ways."
So do you say it both ways in this movie, too?
I guess so. I don’t know. I don’t pay attention.
You’ve known J.J. going back a long time. Since Regarding Henry [which Abrams wrote].
He was 23 years old.
Did you guys keep in touch through the years?
Uh, not so much, but I followed his career, and there were a couple of times when we had a chance to meet. But I was delighted to have a chance to work with him. I admire his work. And we had a good time working together.
It does seem like you’re having a lot of fun with this. Or maybe it’s just that everyone is saying that: That you appear to be enjoying doing Star Wars.
Oh, I’m just enjoying myself. And I enjoyed myself doing [the first] Star Wars. I don’t know. You know, the people who do the shows on which I end up having fun are really good at what they do. And if they have fun I have fun. So that’s more or less where it’s coming from.
Did J.J.’s involvement seal it for you?
Yeah! Yeah, I mean, of course the choice of director is a big part of the decision you make, whether or not that’s someone you think you’ll be comfortable working with. And the script is the other part of it. And I got a script that I thought was interesting, and that took the character in a direction that I understood, and it looked like it would be a good time.
Did you have to fight to get anything into the story? Or was there anything in there where you were like ‘Nah, I’m not doing that.’
I don’t remember. I mean, seriously. It’s a collaborative enterprise. People do reason together. And I don’t write it down when I’ve got a good idea. Because it’s only a good idea if it’s in the movie. If I think it’s a good idea and it doesn’t make its way into the movie … it’s not a good idea.
Speaking of good ideas ... have you been flying again since the crash?
Oh yeah. I went back … they never pulled my license. They obliged me medically to take somebody that was rated for the aircraft that I was flying with me for a short period of time, and then I got my medical (clearance) back.
Aha. Well I ask because I want to talk about the airworthiness of the, uh, FAHL-con.
Or Falcon.
Oh right. OK, so, is the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon ...
[Deadly serious] FAHL-con.
Right, sorry. Do the controls in there make any sense? Like, to a real pilot, is the cockpit in any way ergonomically correct?
It was fine for me. For a seven-foot-four-inch guy in a dog suit, not so much. Not so much. Little more of a struggle. So it’s about a three-man job to get [Chewbacca] into his seat. So you will not see in this movie, or any other, him get into his seat.
Or leave his seat?
Or leave his seat, right. He will start to leave his seat. But then you watch. That is the magic of the movies.
So the Han Solo character in the original films, was — I don’t want to say emotionally distant, but — emotion wasn’t his …
Bag.
Yeah.
Well, irony, which implies distance, was the point of the character. He was ironically related to the mysto-crypto elements of the Force, and that sort of thing. But he was also ironic about moral systems. Ironic about women. And young people. That’s just the nature of this character. Well, you take that person and put him in the freezer and bring him out 30 years later, he’s going to be different. Or sorry, NOT put him in the freezer. Not cryogenics ...
He tried that once.
Yeah. He did that once and it worked out, actually. But there’s a development that happens with human nature, in context of your experience and as you age and grow, and so that’s still part of his nature. But it’s different. It’s a bit different.
It does seem from the trailers — and I realize that’s just a tiny sliver of the movie — but it does seem like he’s the emotional center; and the story has a much more emotional connection. Saying “we’re home,” everyone in the room bursting into tears …
That’s not my fault. Don’t blame that shit on me.
I wouldn’t dare.
OK. [laughs]. But that’s how smart J.J. is. He knew he was gonna use that moment in the trailer as well as in the movie. And it has a different utility in the trailer than it does in the movie, interestingly enough. But that was like, you know, as much as you are walking up to — in the trailers — a new circumstance, that “Chewie, we’re home” was kind of the key in the door. And that familiarity was unlocked at that moment. It was kind of communications genius, I think.
It allowed us to feel like, OK, this is a welcoming place again. It’s OK for us to be excited and have warm feelings about this.
Yeah! Exactly.
I’m just thinking back through Han Solo, Indiana Jones, all the heroic characters you’ve played, and the thing I’ve always loved — more than anything, and I feel like it’s just lost on so many actors playing hereoes — is just that little bit of vulnerability. Fear in the eyes.
I think that acting is reacting. That’s one of the things they tell you in, you know, acting class. One of the things they should tell you is "Don’t go to acting class." Or be very careful if you do go to acting class, because you’re storytelling. Identify the story and figure out how to be useful to the telling of the story. And also invite people in emotionally. I think the real talent of acting is empathy, developed into expression. And understanding how people feel — how people really feel — in those circumstances is an important part of communicating, allowing an audience to be a participant rather than just a witness.
You’ve seen the film.
Mmm hmmm.
You’ve said very positive things about it.
It’s much too long.
I say that about every movie though.
Yeah [laughs]. "Half an hour too long." … We used to try to keep it under two hours. This is two hours and seven minutes. Which is pretty …
I’m starting to get a little saddle sore at the two-hour mark.
You’ll be all right. This one’ll get you through.
I have no doubt.
Remember the part where I said "It’s a half an hour too long?" I was kidding.
Yeah I know.
Make sure they understand that.
I can read the sarcasm.
I can read the sarcasm.
It’s not sarcasm, it’s — attempted wit.
A gentle rib. Said with love.
[Laughs] I’m not sure Millennials understand that.
There’s some level of nuance that seems to be lost on them.
Well, that’s what happens when you spend all your time … are we off the record now?
Sure.
And that's when you turn off the voice recorder.
Ford leans in even closer and begins to share some thoughts that will stay with only you. You tell him about another story you’re working on in that same vein; he has some ideas about that, too.
Several minutes into this conversation, the spindly woman with the headset and clipboard comes back into the room, but Ford keeps talking until his idea is completely unspooled. Now the woman is gesturing with the clipboard, so in deference, you stand; he stands too, asks you one last question about that story and starts walking you to the door as you fumble to answer inside of 20 paces.
As he shakes your hand at the door, he looks you in the eye one last time, raises his brows in that … way.
“Good luck,” he says.
Source: Mashable
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