The slimy secret behind Harrison Ford’s career: “People find this slightly offensive”
“Age is just a number” is a saying we often hear when we think we’re too old for something, consoling us in moments of self-doubt that we can’t strive for something greater because we feel the window of time has closed. It’s in this pocket that the stories of so-called late bloomers who “made it big” begin to blossom. It’s the magic mantra that has pushed many actors, directors, writers and more to push through for some enduring and well-deserved time in the limelight.
Oprah Winfrey was 32 when she got her first daytime talk show, after being fired from a local news station years earlier, while iconic Marvel comic co-creator Stan Lee didn’t achieve mainstream success until middle-age. Rodney Dangerfield’s style of comedy didn’t become a hit until his 40s.
Then you have Harrison Ford, a name synonymous with box office gold, such as Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Fugitive, Air Force One, and Clear and Present Danger, to name but a few, all with some standout one-liners to go with them as well. Yet, did you know he did not get into acting until his mid-30s?
Despite some minor roles in films in the mid-1970s, Ford was 33 when he was on set for Star Wars and celebrated his 34th birthday shortly after the film’s release; from there, his career took off to the stratosphere. That’s the kind of pure luck that kickstarts a career when you need it the most, for the man who has iconically played Han Solo didn’t really study much as a thespian, or rather, his peers in the world of acting. In fact, he was a carpenter supporting his family.
Ford revealed several things about himself in an interview with GQ in 2020, one of which was that in the third Star Wars film, he wanted Han Solo to be killed off. If that wasn’t scandalous enough, he also admitted to never really paying any attention to movies. Most actors double as film buffs; they watch countless movies both to help study the craft and enjoy the magic of cinema just as much as those who work behind the camera.
Ford, on the other hand, has a different approach. “The dirty little secret is that I never went to the movies,” Ford revealed. “I didn’t have any idols. I didn’t identify with any heroes or movie stars. I think people find this slightly offensive, but it’s just the facts. When I went to the movies as a kid, we went to see Saturday matinees. My parents took me to see Bambi, and it scared the shit out of me. I don’t have heroes.”
Ford was notoriously a late bloomer in movies, and you can see why. He never even really cared for them to begin with. Ever the curmudgeon personality when it comes to opening up in front of cameras (whether it be an act or not), the man took an acting class in his junior year at Ripon College to help with his shyness and open up more. That may have been the choice that got the wheels of the universe rolling in his favour of becoming an onscreen presence.
The five-time Indiana Jones has famously been very hot and cold in interviews when it comes to answering questions about the movie he’s on a press tour for. But it has also led to some hilarious interviews with the likes of Conan O’Brien, especially when it involves talking about Star Wars. It’s clear that, despite being a major box office draw, this was, in a sense, just a job that the Hollywood legend fell into, which ultimately paid exceptionally well.
