Why Harrison Ford refused a ‘Blade Runner’ reunion: “I couldn’t find a way into it”
After he’d gotten over his initial dissatisfaction with Blade Runner, there was always a chance that Harrison Ford could be convinced to reprise the role of Rick Deckard, especially with the industry’s fondness for legacy sequels and nostalgia only growing stronger.
If he was happy to dust off Indiana Jones’ trusty fedora for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull after a two-decade absence and then return to the Millennium Falcon as Han Solo after an even longer absence, then there was no reason why he’d be against stepping back into his third signature role.
Obviously, he did, and it bombed. Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 wasn’t quite on a par with its illustrious predecessor, and it followed in its footsteps in the most unfortunate way by flatlining in theatres, but it was a more than worthy follow-up to one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.
Ridley Scott, who toyed with the idea for years and ultimately served as an executive producer, admitted his regrets over not directing the sequel himself. Blade Runner remains the one and only time he’s helmed a picture starring Ford, but he had the opportunity long before 2049.
In Paul M Sammon’s book, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, the legendary actor revealed that he’d been offered the chance to reunite with Scott almost a decade and a half before they crossed paths under Villeneuve’s watch, and he turned him down.
“I’m not sure that this has ever made it into print,” he prefaced. “But I will tell you that Ridley offered me Matchstick Men. And I read it and couldn’t find my way into it.” Easily one of the filmmaker’s most overlooked and underrated efforts, the breezy crime caper was a much-needed breather to refresh and recharge Scott’s creative batteries after the back-to-back-to-back blockbusters of Gladiator, Hannibal, and Black Hawk Down.
Of course, that begs the question about what part Ford had been offered. Of actors in his age range, only Bruce McGill’s Chuck Frechette, the target of the con being orchestrated by Nicolas Cage’s Roy Waller and Sam Rockwell’s Frank Mercer, fits the bill for a character substantial enough to require a name of his heft.
Or maybe it was Waller, although it’s hard to imagine Ford as an OCD-afflicted con artist who could bring out the protagonist’s idiosyncrasies in the same way Cage does. In all honesty, the Star Wars veteran probably would have benefited from being part of a film like Matchstick Men at that point in his career.
Scott’s criminally overlooked gem may have fallen short of expectations at the box office, but it received plenty of acclaim, and at the time, Ford was occupying himself with big-budget dreck like K-19: The Widowmaker and Hollywood Homicide. It wasn’t to be, and his union with the director remains a one-time thing. On the plus side, as solitary collaborations go, Blade Runner isn’t half bad.
