Why Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott and Sean Young hated each other on ‘Blade Runner’
While Ridley Scott’s 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, an adaptation of the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is rightfully considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, it was not without its production problems, and the issues between Scott and its lead actor Harrison Ford have been well documented.
As is well documented, there was some severe tension behind the scenes of the film with Ford, who’d already become a household name by the early 1980s, rubbed harshly against several members of the cast and crew. Ford famously “tangled” with Scott, while the final version of the movie saw voiceovers that the actor was less than impressed with.
Scott later said that Ford was “the biggest pain in the arse” that he’d ever worked with, though in hindsight, he admitted that it was largely owed to the fact that the actor knew a lot about the novel the film was based on and that the actual production of the film, in which Ford had to shoot for “50 nights in the rain” was what caused the rift.
Interestingly, Ford was not the only actor to have issues on set as Sean Young, who plays the replicant Rachael, with whom Ford’s Rick Deckard seemingly falls in love, also had a problematic experience on set, not only with Ford but also with Scott, proving that the entire set was largely marred with bad blood.
Ford and Young were said to hate one another on set, not quite the environment two actors playing loving characters would like to find themselves in. When the film’s famous love scene finally came around, the cast and crew made a joke and began calling it the “hate scene”. However, the reason for the feud was never entirely disclosed.
One suspected reason is that the two actors had very different methods and beliefs about how the movie ought to be made, not to mention the fact that Ford seemed to be in a particularly spiky mood throughout production. But if Ford and Young’s relationship was bad, then Young and Scott’s was even worse.
During an interview with Variety, Young explained that she refused Scott’s romantic advances, which led the director to treat her unfairly. She said: “Well, honestly, Ridley wanted me to date him. He tried very hard in the beginning of the show to date him, and I never would. I was like, ‘nah’. And then we do this scene, and I think it was Ridley. I think Ridley was like, ‘fuck you.’ I was thinking, ‘Why did this have to be like that? What was the point of that?’ and I think it was Ridley’s none-too-subtle message that he was getting even with me.”
So, while Blade Runner is a science fiction masterpiece, behind the scenes, it was an ongoing nightmare in terms of production. However, perhaps that goes to show that the best films, like all the best art, are painstaking to make where tension constantly threatens to spoil their quality.
