The art of apathy: how Harrison Ford’s miserable disinterest defines him
If it weren’t for Ridley Scott, then Harrison Ford would be running away with the crown for being Hollywood’s most cantankerous octogenarian, even if they’re two very different types of grump.
The legendary director can often come across as bitter when he’s shutting down lines of questioning he doesn’t care for or blaming millennials and their damned phones for dwindling box office totals, whereas Ford has always given off the air of someone completely and utterly apathetic to everything that comes after the work.
He turns up, recites his lines, does the stunts if the performance requires them, and then he goes home. That’s acting in a nutshell, sure, but having been an A-lister since 1977 and spent decades under the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, at no point has he shown any interest in the necessary evils of promotion.
The way the business has always worked is that actors hit the publicity trail to drum up interest in their upcoming project, celebrating it as the greatest cinematic achievement of their lives. For Ford, that scrutiny has always been increased because he’s also Han Solo and Indiana Jones, which by extension means that the press tour for his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Captain America: Brave New World is guaranteed to be a thing of beauty.
He’s already admitted he signed up for the superhero franchise because it looked like fun, with his main motivators beyond that being “not caring” and “being an idiot for money”. If the way he’s been treating Star Wars-related questions for decades is any indication, being inundated with queries about intricate Marvel lore is going to wear his patience very thin awfully quickly.
Does Ford really hate Star Wars? It’s debatable, but he’s made it perfectly clear he hates being asked about it. Unfortunately, he played one of cinema’s most iconic heroes in one of its most iconic properties, and he’ll never be able to outrun its shadow. The debate over whether Greedo or Han shot first continues to rage, but what was Ford’s answer? “I don’t know, and I don’t care”.
What did he say when asked if his grumpy image was accurate? “That’s horseshit”. Does he ever take mementoes from the sets he’s worked on? “I don’t want all that crap around my house”. When asked if he could recall the exact colour of the whip he brandished in Raiders of the Lost Ark? “Who gives a shit?” When pressed for details on the second season of the streaming comedy Shrinking? “I haven’t got a fucking clue”.
When quizzed on where he would visit if he were able to go to any place during any period in history, Ford’s one-word answer was “home”, which sums everything up in a nutshell. One of pop culture’s longest-running debates is whether Han or Indy would come out on top in a fistfight, but who would the man who embodied both put his money on? “Me, asshole. I don’t want to fucking make shit up like that. I mean, what are you asking me that crap for?”
He’s a delightfully miserable man, so much so that he’s turned it into an art form. He wasn’t always this way, but as he settled into his current role as an elder statesman of the A-list who had long since resigned themselves to the fact there are certain things that will follow him wherever he goes regardless of how he feels about it, his short-tempered nature has evolved into one of his defining traits.
If Ford started making the press rounds with a perpetual smile on his face, shaking hands and kissing babies and repeatedly outlining how happy he was to be there, something would feel off. He’s been around long enough to feel more secure in his position than most in his age range, so he’s decided that not giving a fuck was the best course of action. And to his credit, it was.
There aren’t many stars who can not only get away with having such a blase attitude towards their work but be adored for it. The field in which Ford stores his fucks to give has lain barren and empty for a long time, and being so relentlessly apathetic to playing the game has ended up as one of his most popular traits.
As a result, Ford comes across as an ageing failed carpenter who only became a massively successful movie star because they had to, which may not be too far from the truth.
