Six words and one scene cost Harrison Ford his shot at Hollywood immortality: “My first choice”
There are hundreds upon hundreds of actors who’ve appeared in a movie that was the highest-grossing release in cinema history at one time or another, and there are a couple who’ve done it twice, but two small ripples stopped Harrison Ford from achieving something that nobody else has done.
Samuel L Jackson was in Jurassic Park and Avengers: Endgame, both of which topped the all-time rankings, while Zoe Saldaña was in the Marvel Studios blockbuster and James Cameron’s Avatar, making them the only stars to have appeared in two movies that became the top-earning big screen hits ever.
The only director to helm the highest-grossing film ever made on three separate occasions is Steven Spielberg, who did it with Jaws, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park, with James Cameron accomplishing it twice through Titanic and Avatar, but no on-camera performer has ever completed the hat-trick.
Ford could have, though, if it wasn’t for six words and a deleted scene. Of course, George Lucas’ Star Wars smashed all existing records when it became less of a sci-fi blockbuster and more of a global cultural phenomenon in 1977, and it would remain at the top of the pile for five years until Spielberg’s family-friendly adventure about the titular alien and his desire to phone home arrived.
His Raiders of the Lost Ark leading man was instrumental in getting the picture made in the first place, after the filmmaker had a word with his friend and collaborator to help convince Melissa Mathison to write the screenplay. To repay the favour, Spielberg brought Ford in for a cameo appearance as a teacher, which was ultimately excised from the final cut.
ET would remain the industry’s most lucrative enterprise for the next 11 years, until the director managed to top himself. When he was looking for the perfect person to play Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, there was only one name on his mind, with Spielberg calling him “my first choice.”
Unfortunately, when he pitched Ford the idea, his response was simple: “This is not for me, pal.”
If his scene hadn’t been left on the cutting room floor, then Star Wars and ET would have made Ford not only the first person to appear in two movies that each became the industry’s highest-grossing of all time, but he’d be the only person to do it with back-to-back title holders until Saldaña made that unique slice of history herself in 2019 when Endgame briefly dethroned Avatar.
Had his cameo been kept in the theatrical version, and had he not turned down the chance to take top billing in Jurassic Park, then he’d be in a pantheon all of his own as the one and only actor to play an onscreen role in three different features that each took the crown for making more money than any other film before it.
It’s all ifs and buts, sure, but since Spielberg is still the only three-peater on either side of the camera, it would have given Ford a distinction that no other actor has ever laid claim to.
