HARRISON FORD
‘I was not an overnight success’
Harrison Ford arrives prepared for his interview with Parade, generously carrying two coffees and a bag of muffins to share. “It’s good to get things done,” he says. That simple line and the simple gesture seem to sum up the essence of this man of few words, a get-things-done sort of guy at his very core.
Ford’s 50-year acting career is evidence of that. His résumé is full of blockbuster films and some of the most iconic movie characters of the 20th century, including Indiana Jones, Star Wars’ Han Solo and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Ford, 77, is also an avid pilot and a father of five. He splits his time between Los Angeles and a Wyoming ranch that he shares with his wife, actress Calista Flockhart, 55 (Brothers & Sisters, Supergirl); they’ve been a couple for 18 years and married for nearly 10. Not one to slow down, he’s back on the big screen in The Call of the Wild (in theaters now), a new adaptation of the classic Jack London novel.
The movie centers around Buck, a former domestic pet who becomes a working dog in 19th-century Alaska. Ford plays John Thornton, a prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s who discovers Buck abused by his owners and decides to bring the dog along on his quest.
Ford appreciated how Thornton’s and Buck’s stories mirror each other. Buck “heeded the call of the wild—to slough off his domestic experience and to feel a part of nature,” says Ford, while Thornton was doing some sloughing off of his own, running away from his emotionally difficult life. And Ford connected most deeply to the film’s ultimate theme: We are all animals among nature and are responsible for taking care of it. “Nature doesn’t need people,” he says. “People need nature to survive, to thrive.”
Luckily, Ford and the cast didn’t have to do much surviving during filming, as the harsh, freezing winters of the Yukon were mostly recreated on Southern California sets, and all the wild animals were computer-generated— including Buck, whose movements were created by former Cirque du Soleil performer Terry Notary. “So basically, I spent three months scratching [Terry] behind
the ears and rubbing his belly and feeding him treats,” Ford says.
The actor’s affinity for man’s best friend (he currently has three small rescues) dates back to his childhood in Chicago and his first dog, Lady, “a little fluffy white thing.” He and his younger brother, Terence, were raised in the city by their mother, Dorothy, a homemaker, and father, Christopher, a writer and actor. Ford remembers a childhood that was “absolutely unremarkable” and “relatively uneventful, middle-class”—but a happy time nonetheless.
SNAKES? NO PROBLEM!
Even in his youth, Ford was getting things done. He was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout (eventually working his way up to Life Scout), and he grew up with a strong work ethic. He particularly recalls the summer he worked as assistant counselor at Camp Napowan in Wisconsin. “My task that summer was digging a terrarium and acquiring snakes and turtles and amphibians to go in it,” he says. “It served me well when I came to [be] Indiana Jones and had not developed a fear of snakes.”
Ford never even thought about being an actor until the beginning of his third year of college, when he took a class in drama without reading the full course description. Why? “Well, because I did everything that way in college—I was a poor student,” he says. “I read the beginning of the description, which said we’d read and discuss plays, and I thought that was fine. I didn’t read the end, where it said you had to be in plays.” Performing terrified him, but the more he realized he enjoyed it, the more determined he was to conquer his fear. “I was a bit of a loner,” he admits, “and this was the first group of people that I felt I was comfortable with—and they were all, you know, the usual geeks and misfits and oddballs that make up the acting community.”
With this, Ford pulls a blueberry muffin out of the bag, then whips a retractable wooden-handled knife out of his pocket and snaps the blade open with a button. Don’t be impressed that he travels with his own knife. “Doesn’t everyone?” he asks. Then he slices the muffin in half.
Armed with a bit more confidence after college, he headed to Los Angeles to be an actor. He had some luck at first, working under contract at two movie studios, but he wasn’t happy with the bit parts he was offered. So he took another tack: He began learning carpentry from library books while working on a fixerupper in the Hollywood Hills that he and his first wife bought with a small inheritance she’d received. His clientele grew along with his skills, and soon he was remodeling other homes, recording studios (including one for Brazilian hitmaker Sergio Mendes) and building custom furniture and cabinets. “Everything I built is still standing,” he says proudly.
Ford vowed from there on out that he’d take an acting job only if it were better than the one he’d previously had— like the small breakout role he landed in 1973’s American
Graffiti. Otherwise, he’d happily return to building something substantial with a hammer, nails and saw. “The last time that I packed up my tools to go do a movie, I had no idea I wouldn’t unpack them again,” he says. “And that was Star Wars.”
Ford was 34 when he was cast as Han Solo in George Lucas’ space trilogy, which spawned a four-decade film odyssey that led to his appearance in last year’s ninth and final film of the saga, Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. “I was not an overnight success. I spent 15 years before I had any real, noticeable success.”
But then the work came fast and furious, as he was cast as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost
Ark (though “I was not the first choice,” Ford recalls, noting that Tom Selleck was given the role but was unable to get out of his TV contract for Magnum, P.I.).
Ford proved his mettle with such hits as Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Witness (which earned him an Academy Award nomination), Working Girl, Presumed
Innocent, Patriot Games and The Fugitive—his career guided by a loose philosophy of “just common sense and gall.” He loved the work, liked the pressure and thrived in a collaborative atmosphere—and he still does.
But he also cherishes his time away from Hollywood at his ranch in Wyoming, where, he says, “I’m old news. I’ve been there for 35 years.” He was drawn to the mountains for the freedom he feels there. “When I’m up in Wyoming, I just walk out the door and keep walking,” he says. As often as possible, he and Flockhart host family there, including Ford’s kids: Ben, 52,
and Willard, 50 (with his first wife, Mary Marquardt); Malcolm, 32, and Georgia, 29 (with wife number two, screenwriter Melissa Mathison); and Liam, 19 (whom Flockhart adopted right before meeting Ford).
He usually flies the family to Wyoming and back himself; he’s been a licensed pilot for 25 years, taking his first lessons when he was a college student. (A 2015 crash due to a mechanical problem hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm at all.)
Ford spends his days in Wyoming doing a little work and a little play. “Well, if my chores are done and there’s nothing more pressing and the weather’s good, I’ll go flying—I love to fly up there—or walk in the woods, do some work, ride my road bike or mountain bike.” As for those chores: “There are ‘honey do’s,’ ” he admits. Ford also spends quality time with Flockhart, with whom he’s about to celebrate a 10-year wedding anniversary, and he’s learned some marriage tricks through the years. “Don’t talk,” he notes with a smile. “Nod your head.” That dry humor? He has no idea where it came from. “I’ve never even thought about it,” he says. “I see funny, I think.”
THE RETURN OF INDY
Ford works out three times a week, biking, playing tennis and doing strength training. He tries to stay as flexible as he can, as he notes he’s usually halfway through a recovery from some orthopedic injury, like his current bad shoulder. “But,” he knocks on a wooden table, “for my age, still pretty fit.” And he’ll need to stay fit for the fifth Indiana Jones
movie, currently in development (with Steven Spielberg returning to direct). Ford won’t reveal any details but says he’s looking forward to his standard Indy tasks: running, jumping, falling and rolling around. “They’re hard,” he says of the Indiana Jones films, “but they’re fun.”
He’s also working on a TV drama deal, a new adaptation of the gripping true-crime murdermystery docuseries The Staircase.
And when Ford looks toward what’s next, he shrugs. “I never had targets. I never had boxes to tick. I think one of the pleasures of my work is not knowing what’s coming,” he says.
But one aspect of Ford’s life that’s been consistent is the time he devotes to charitable endeavors, including volunteering for the Young Eagles program, which takes young people up flying; Wings of Hope, which does humanitarian work around the world; and Conservation International, which works to protect nature and secure a stable climate. Last year, he spoke about the threats to the Amazon rainforest at the UN Climate Action Summit.
Ford’s activism—like his work ethic—was built into his childhood. His parents, he says, always raised him and his brother “with a sense of social responsibility. It’s what one does.” And it’s likely why, when people ask him for advice of any kind, he has a response. “I say simply, ‘Learn how to be useful,’ ”says Ford. “It’ll take a lot of the mystery out of life.”