Harrison Ford’s bizarre first meeting with Adam Sandler: “I would love for you to wash my car”
Adam Sandler is often treated with derision by film critics, but he has unquestionably worked with some of the most legendary actors of all time.
Between Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, Burt Reynolds, and Steve Martin, Sandler has befriended many of the most acclaimed stars of the ‘70s. One of the closest relationships that he had was with the late Carrie Fisher, who had become an acclaimed script doctor by the mid-’90s.
Fisher is a fascinating Hollywood figure who went through a public struggle with addiction in the years following the release of Star Wars and its sequels. Although she continued to give memorable film performances in the next decade, including When Harry Met Sally… and Soapdish, she also helped rewrite comedy scripts, even if she didn’t get any official credits.
Among the many comedies that Fisher ‘saved’ with her rewrites was The Wedding Singer, which became one of Sandler’s most successful films. While Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore were both hits, they didn’t stray that far from the roles that Sandler played on Saturday Night Live, but comparatively, The Wedding Singer was a legitimately great romantic comedy, and one that proved the actor could be taken seriously in Hollywood circles.
Sandler’s connection with Fisher meant that he got invited to one of her legendary parties, which gathered many of the most prominent figures in Hollywood. As he recalled to Conan O’Brien, he was absolutely starstruck to meet Harrison Ford, but was surprised by the actor’s unusual request.
“He goes, ‘I would love for you to come over to my house’,” Sandler said, “He goes, ‘and I would love you to wash my car’. He goes, ‘My kids think you’re funny, and it would be just a kick for them to see that’”.
While Ford is among the most private actors of his generation, rarely divulging personal information about his family, he’s also known for having a very dry sense of humour. He has engaged in a bit over the years, denying the existence of The Star Wars Holiday Special, a made-for-television film featuring the cast of Star Wars that aired a year after the original film premiered in theatres. Ford’s refusal to acknowledge that the special exists, or that he had any part in it, is even funnier when considering that Lucasfilm has essentially scrubbed it from existence.
Ford has also not been opposed to doing comedy roles, even if it isn’t what he was best known for, and one of his earliest films was The Frisco Kid, a 1979 western satire that he co-starred in with Gene Wilder, and he delivered an acclaimed performance in the 1995 remake of the classic romantic comedy Sabrina, where he took over the role that had been played by Humphrey Bogart in the original.
The idea of Ford and Sandler co-starring in a film together actually isn’t totally inconceivable; Ford had a very funny cameo in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, a film that features many former Saturday Night Live stars, but he currently seems so focused on Apple TV’s Shrinking that it seems unlikely he will return to the big screen. In all likelihood, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was the last film he will ever make.
