The “critical” advice Harrison Ford would give to his younger self: “Hang in there, kid”
How do you make it in Hollywood? It’s a question that has been asked time and time again, with no straightforward answer or step that needs to be taken in order to climb your way to the top. It’s a slow and often gruelling business, with years of work and waiting around for people to reply to your emails, calls and audition tapes before eventually finding a tiny part in a cereal commercial.
For most people, it isn’t a sustainable dream, with many giving up and finding a job that will at least pay the bills, leaving just a few at the end who cling on for dear life and blindly hope that one day, even if after many years, they will find what they originally set out to achieve.
This is something that many actors and filmmakers have struggled with, whether it be Jennifer Coolidge and her sudden comeback after her star-making role in The White Lotus, Demi Moore and her explosive renaissance after The Substance or Pedro Pascal and his slow climb to fame before his recent success on The Last Of Us.
All of these journeys prove that life and success are not a linear journey, and the route to where you want to be is not always a straightforward one. Success can never come too late, with many people proving that sometimes you find where you are supposed to be a little later than you expected.
For Harrison Ford, this was most certainly the case, with the actor finding fame at the age of 35 after many gruelling years in the business. He started out in the business by taking low-paid jobs in small films produced by Columbia Pictures, earning $150 a week to fill some of the smaller non-speaking parts. From this point onwards, he starred in many television shows and independent films, eventually booking a credited role in a Western called A Time For Killing.
But Ford was unhappy with the types of roles he was being offered and fed up with the business as a whole, taking a short break away from the industry and working as a carpenter, something that ended up changing his life forever after being hired by George Lucas and eventually starring in his multi-million dollar franchise as Han Solo, perhaps one of his most beloved roles.
This eventually sparked decades of iconic characters, leading him to become the most revered action hero of all time through playing Indiana Jones and working with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner. When asked about what advice he would give to his younger self, he said, “Hang in there, kid. It’s going to be a while. Most of the people who get on that Greyhound bus to Los Angeles give up and go home. Sometimes, the only reason you get the job is that you’re the only one left. I didn’t make a living [acting] until I was 35. Tenacity is critical”.
While it might be brutal and seemingly hopeless at times, the only way to succeed is to keep going and come out on top as the last one standing.
