“You’re too fucking good”: the filmmaker Harrison Ford is terrified to be directed by
Throughout his career, Harrison Ford has been directed by icons, legends, hot-heads, and heavyweights, but it wasn’t any of them who left the legendary star terrified of being given direction.
From George Lucas’ Star Wars, Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones trilogy, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Robert Zemeckis’ What Lies Beneath, and Sydney Pollack’s Sabrina, Ford has collaborated with Academy Award winners and trailblazers alike.
He’s also starred for Peter Weir, Denis Villeneuve, Mike Nichols, Philip Noyce, Roman Polanski, Kathryn Bigelow, Wolfgang Petersen, and Ivan Reitman, among others, many of whom have reputations, for better or worse. Despite that, the veteran never felt himself quaking in his boots when they called action.
These days, as it has been for decades, filmmakers are usually more trepidatious of Ford than he is of them, which comes with the territory when he’s a Hollywood superstar with half a century of success under his belt, with his reputation having long since passed the point of preceding him when he signs on for a new picture, or, in recent years, a recurring role on TV.
If you were to scan a list of the auteurs Ford has worked with who were most likely to strike fear into him, Scott would probably be near the top, mostly because he’s one of the few people in the industry who’s even more of a grumpy, cantankerous bastard than the grizzled Han Solo.
On the other hand, if you were to flick through his credits to see who’d be the least likely to leave him quivering, you’d absolutely have Zach Braff somewhere near the bottom. And yet, after helming five episodes of Shrinking, he’s somehow evolved into a figure of fear for a member of Tinseltown royalty.
“You really never fucking give up, do you?” Ford asked Braff. “You just pack it in and pack it in, as far as character and comedy. And now, I’m scared to be directed by you again, because you’re too fucking good.” Of all the directors, it’s JD from Scrubs and the guy who helmed Garden State and Going in Style who puts the shitters right up him.
From Braff’s perspective, compliments surely can’t come much higher, but for the vast majority of the cinemagoing or even TV-watching population, how many of them have watched anything directed by Braff and sat there, thinking to themselves, “Wow, he’s far too fucking good at this whole filmmaking thing”?
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter because Harrison Ford said it, and none of us are Harrison Ford. Still, Zach Braff? Not what anyone would call the most obvious candidate.
