Photo:Karwai Tang/WireImage; Noam Galai/Getty
Karwai Tang/WireImage; Noam Galai/Getty
Harrison Fordknows he owes one of his career-defining roles toTom Selleck.
As Ford, 80, appeared alongside hisIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destinycostars Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mikkelsen at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy on Sunday, the actor recalled toDeadlinethatSteven Spielbergonly cast him as Indiana Jones after Selleck, now 78, was forced to drop out of 1981’sRaiders of the Lost Ark.
“How I got the job? Tom Selleck had the job, but he also incurred an obligation to do a television series and he was unable to get out of that contract,” Ford said during a panel discussion, as he was asked how he came to play Indiana Jones. “I became the second choice, and I’m very grateful for Tom. Thank you, Tom, man. If you’re listening, thank you again.”
Ford went on to describe how franchise creator George Lucas, whom he had already collaborated with onStar Wars, called him to tell him to read a script he was sending to Ford’s home.
“He said ‘I want you to read it right away, I want you to read it in an hour.’ I sat down, I read it an an hour, and he said ‘I want you to go over to Steven Spielberg’s house and talk to him,' " the actor detailed. “I went to Steven Spielberg’s house, I had never met Steven Spielberg before. I guess about an hour later I had the job.”
Paramount/Getty ; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
“There was a guy in the middle of the jungle with a whip and a leather jacket,” Ford said, when asked how he went about “finding” the Indiana Jones character forRaiders of the Lost Ark.
“Pretty hot out for a leather jacket, and a heavy felt hat, and he was an archeologist and he was a professor, and what more would you need to know as an actor?” he added. “This is a guy who carries a whip. You know what that means.”
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Selleck was forced to drop out of the first Indiana Jones movie after hecommitted to filmMagnum P.I.instead. Lucas, 79, had said he was initially reluctant to cast Ford because he did not want to have a close actor collaborator on each of his movies in a vein similar to Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro’s frequent team-ups, according to anEmpiremagazine oral history of the first movie’s production.
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“I doubted he’d go for a three-picture deal - he didn’t want to onStar Wars,” Lucas told the outlet in the oral history. “And we had three pictures. Steven said to try anyway. I went to Harrison and he read the script and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do a three-picture deal. I’d love to.’ "
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destinyreleases in theaters Friday.
source: people.com
