The actor George Lucas almost replaced Harrison Ford with: “I don’t want him to be my Bobby De Niro”
There are some performances so incredible that its impossible to imagine any other actor stepping up to the plate. The star becomes the actor as the best performances see them fully disappear into the role they’re taking on. Harrison Ford knows that well, having more than his fair share of iconic roles under his belt. However, one of his best was nearly stolen from him.
The relationship between George Lucas and Harrison Ford is one of those perfect coming together between a writer and an actor. So many of the best filmmakers out there seem to form their own favourite cast of players and keep them close. Sofia Coppola has Kirsten Dunst, Wes Anderson has Bill Murray, Richard Linklater kept coming back to Ethan Hawke and so on. It’s understandable, though, when a creative finds a performer that understands their vision and process, it’s a match made in heaven that’s too good not to repeat.
Lucas and Ford’s relationship is probably best known for Star Wars, as the creator cast him in the 1977 original to play Han Solo. However, it began before that, with American Graffiti in 1973. Originally, Lucas was resistant to casting Ford in his sci-fi franchise, but once again, the actor wowed him and won him over.
So when it came to casting for the first Indiana Jones movie, and when Lucas was looking for a leading man to carry one of cinema’s top action men, the writer was reluctant to accept that he already knew the perfect man for the job. He ideally wanted a relative unknown to play the protagonist who could have their career launched by their franchise and not be bringing any past roles or reputation along with them. In a way, Lucas himself had ruined Ford for that reason, as their Star Wars collaborations had made him one of Hollywood’s most sought-after names. He didn’t want to fall into the habit of only casting the same people, stating, “[Ford] has been in two of my movies. I don’t want him to be my Bobby De Niro.”
Therefore when casting started, Lucas looked everywhere except at Ford. In particular, he was looking at Tom Selleck for the role and it went far enough to the point where Selleck had signed the contract to play the lead. “Harrison Ford hates to hear this,” Selleck later joked about the fact, before adding kindly, “Harrison, this is your role and you’re indelible in it. So, it’s just an interesting story.”
“After I did the pilot for Magnum [PI] I tested for Indiana Jones and got the job. Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas] – my newest pals at the time – offered me the job,” Selleck recalled. Luckily for Ford, the actor had to pull out of the production due to schedule conflicts as the pilot for the TV show got picked up.
It was Steven Spielberg who then gave Lucas’ head a shake and convinced him to see that the man for the job was right in front of them. Ford himself had slight concerns, too, more so over whether he had another tasking franchise in him after the exhaustion of Star Wars. Eventually, both Ford and Lucas surrendered to their synergy and worked together again, proving their power as a duo once more with another career-defining project.
