Ford says the writing in ‘42’ is a home run
You score an interview with Harrison Ford, so you sit around thinking up what you hope are intelligent questions (because of previous interviews, you know he doesn’t suffer fools gladly), and when the phone rings, you’re ready.
And Ford, 70, a man whose movies have made more than $3.5 billion, says, “I’m hoping your first question will be long so I can clear my mouth from the breakfast burrito.”
Gulp. What was I going to ask again?
Ford plays Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed Jackie Robinson, the first African-American player in major-league baseball, in “42,” which opens Friday, April 12. (The title refers to Robinson’s number.)
Once he was done eating, Ford talked about the role, which he had to convince writer and director Brian Helgeland he was right for, as well as his career. What he didn’t talk about was his possible appearance in a new installment of a certain sci-fi franchise, but he was a good sport about it.
Question: With Rickey, you’re playing a much-writtenabout historical figure. Does that change your approach?
Answer: Yeah. This was a character part. This was a real person. I wanted to serve the film by being more like Branch Rickey than Harrison Ford. I think it would have been of no service to the film had I not made the effort to change my appearance and more closely resemble the character of the real-life Branch Rickey, who was a wonderfully dramatic and colorful guy, as well as a very important part of our history.
Q: You don’t really have sports executives like Rickey anymore.
A: I think part of it was the time and the context that he grew up in. He’s a guy from Ohio, largely self-educated, although he did have a good education. He was a schoolteacher at age 17 in a little one-
Actor
room schoolhouse. He’s a guy who could have been a preacher or a trial lawyer. He had a real distinct oratorical style and way of expressing himself. For an actor, that’s a treasure.
Q: A preacher is a good reference. You do get to do the occasional fire-and-brimstone stuff.
A: Yeah. His language is really interesting and fun. We were operating not just from historical documentation, but I had an incredible script to work with. I really admire the work that Brian did, first as a writer and then as a director. I was in good hands, and I was having a good time.
Q: Why did it take so long to get another movie about Robinson made, when the subject matter is so important and interesting?
A: I can’t really tell you that. This is an exceptional piece of writing. There’s 100 ways to tell the story, and many of them I’m sure wellintentioned and appropriate and observant, but there’s something about when I read the script, it had the stink of art on it. It was just so exceptionally well-written. Maybe that’s it.
Q: Is writing where you typically start when deciding what parts to take?
A: It’s always that. It’s always the writing. It’s about ambition, whether you think there’s real ambition behind it, to do good work. Maybe there’s times when you read it, and it’s not as good as you hope it could be and you can work with people, and it can get better. There are times when you just read something and say, “Ah (expletive), this is the real deal.” That’s the way I felt about this.
Q: Rickey is such an interesting character.
A: Yeah. How could you walk away from that? Of course, it wasn’t sent to me with a ribbon around it and a beseeching letter. I came by means other than the normal channels across the script. I think Brian had to be persuaded to meet with me, because he was thinking about what I’ve done before. He wanted a character actor, not a whatever it is that my history had caused me to be thought of as.
Q: How did you convince him otherwise? Read for it?
A: No, he never asked me to read for it. We just met and talked about the script and the character. I told him what I thought I wanted to do and what it meant to me to have the opportunity to play that kind of character. We never even talked about whether I would attempt to look like him. It never came up.
Q: You mentioned being more Rickey than you. Do you think audiences have a tough time getting past you playing a character, at least at first?
A: Every once in a while you insist on playing a Russian submarine captain and people don’t withdraw funding. And sometimes somebody says, a very well-intentioned and smart person who you respect, “We paid for your face. Now I want to see it.”
Q: Ha. Robert De Niro once said sometimes with younger casts, they’re in awe for about 10 minutes, but then everyone gets to work. Do you run into that?
A: (Laughs) Well, I don’t think anybody confuses me and Robert De Niro. Maybe closer to Meryl Streep.
Q: Oh, come on. It must happen on some sets.
A: I think as soon as it’s established by your behavior that you’re pulling on the same rope, it’s a teamwork thing, that you aren’t required to be admired and deferred to, I think they get over it.
Q: You seem like a forward-thinking guy, but do you ever look back on your career?
A: No. I should go home and live off last year’s crop? It doesn’t occur to me. I have too much fun, and work is really important to my life. As long as there are opportunities to work with people, I think commitment and work keeps you alive. It’s more of an aid to longevity than golf.
Q: Do you ever see your movies while channel-surfing?
A: No, not really. I stumble across stuff every once in a while.
Q: You can’t not stumble across “Star Wars” movies.
A: (Laughs.) Yeah, enough of those that I don’t need to revisit that. I did sit down and watch the last of the “Star Wars” movies, I don’t remember which one it was, a little while ago with my 12year-old son who hasn’t seen it before.
Q: That’s cool. Did he like it?
A: I don’t remember what he said. It’s different. When it’s your dad it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around it, I think.
Q: I think they’d take my movie-critic card away if I didn’t ask you about the rumors that you’ll be in the new “Star Wars” movie.
A: Well I’m hoping your card doesn’t depend on getting an answer to that. I don’t think it does.
Q: Ha. Probably not. Thanks again for your time.
A: Thank you. And good luck with that critic’s card thing.