Harrison Ford's 'Last Crusade'
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from August 1989.
Brought to you by
Not outgoing either. Not full of whimsy, and no twinkle in the eyes. He is not, in fact, much fun. This has gotten him the reputation for being reticent. Or, as he was told during his latest round of interviews, for the final episode in the Indiana Jones sage Indian Jones and the Last Crusade, the kind of guy for whom giving interviews seemed like pulling teeth.
"This myth of my noncooperation with the press is based upon the fact that I do not do interviews in between times that I have something to offer the public," he says. "There's no reason for me to be out there. People have only so much interest in somebody and it's best to excite that interest when you have something to sell.
"I'm not a profit participant. I'm a businessman. It makes no sense to me not to take advantage of this opportunity to bring the word to the customers." The other thing that it helps to know about Ford is that he is not Hollywood, not at all. The 46-year-old actor has a spread in Wyoming to which he repairs after the end of each film, to fish, commune and be left alone with wife Melissa Mathison (ET). He has no wish to direct ("to much work") and no wish to inhabit his on-screen persona.
He talks about Last Crusade and his upcoming project, an adaptation of the best-selling thriller, Presumed Innocent which begins rehearsals in July with the demeanor of an accountant at the end of a hard day. "His eyes are heavy lidded, his speech slow and sparing. He is not if we're to believe, even particularly analytical: his approach to performing is intuitive, and he values harmony on the set above such considerations as star-turn ego and motivation.
Even so, Ford is able to talk about plumbing the depths of character in a project as surface thin as Indy 3 - in which Sean Connery plays his father and River Phoenix the young Indy - and command attention.
He begins by addressing the widespread opinion that Last Crusade as a kind of apology for the shortcomings of the more violent second installment Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
"I was very anxious that if we did a third one, we deepen the character show some side of Indiana we hadn't seen before. Otherwise I felt we'd be serving a warmed over meal.
"I think we made a film, the second one, that was a reasonable stretch from the first one, but it got too strong. There was a lot of mysto-crypto stuff in it and I don't think it affected the audiences much as emotionally as we would have liked it to. We lost access to some of our audience those younger kids. And I'm pleased to say that I think we're back on track. I don't think there's anything in this one that you can't take younger children to.
"It was the whole intention of the second one to take you for a walk on the darker side. That was[t the intention this time."
Somber he may be but Ford isn't condescending about his work. These movies are fun to make he says and they can be good.
"I like it even when there isn't running jumping and falling down, it's just sort of an extra.. There's a playfulness about it. It's boys' camp. We have the best toys boys ever had.
"The problem with the genre action-adventure is that usually it doesn't have very much ambition. It usually caters to the basest instincts of the audiences more full of kinetics rather than emotions, and therefore it does not appeal to me. I don't want to do something full of gratuitous violence and car chases."
Of course, working with Spielberg and Lucas is a different story. Ford has collaborated with one or both, so far, on five of the 20 most popular films in movie history. Last Crusade is likely to make it six and Ford, famous for throwing himself into his work. It is said he does many of his own stunts. Here, though, he draws the line.
"I don't do stunts I do physical acting. Stunt people do stunts. If it gets dangerous to the extent where everybody can see there's a potential for getting hurt I don't do it - a stuntman does it."
Asked about his craft, about how he acts Ford seems genuinely to have trouble with the question. He looks around at the small group of reporters during an interview session with apparent bemusement.
"The only time I'm caused to reflect on my acting technique is in these kind of situations, and I do it on my feet, with very little confidence in what I say. I don't really think about it. I know how I do my work. It's very hard to explain. It's really a process of investigation and trying to get as many answers to the questions so that I can be as particular as possible."
And the rats, and the bugs and the snakes in the Indian Jones movies? -"They're all the same to me. The only hard thing is keeping them on the set. You tend to lose a lot of snakes." Which leaves just to two questions for this marvelous actor, money machine and between-jobs hermit - the fan questions 1. Any talk of resuming the Stars Wars series? "Not in my house."
And then softening a bit on the subject of Han Solo, the good-hearted space pirate, "that character wouldn't offer me anything, really at this point. I'm very happy to have done it but I don't anticipate going back."
And is this really the end for Indy? "Read my lips: 'Bye-bye Indiana."
