Barely a month after that L.A. interview, Harrison agreed to come out on the cover of People magazine with his beloved Calista Flockhart, a relationship which he carefully – skillfully! – evaded during the interview. In the People cover story, Harrison finally admitted: "I’m in love." Now living with Harrison and her two-and-a-half-year-old son Liam at Harrison’s five-bedroom New England-style farmhouse in the Los Angeles hills, Calista (who, at 39, is 22 years Harrison’s junior) describes the way the world’s biggest box-office actor looks in the morning, thus: "...It’s not handsome. It’s more cute. He looks like a little boy. You know how you wake up in the morning and you’re kind of puffy and rumpled and you look kind of vulnerable? That’s what he looks like."
Cute, isn’t he?
That was also how Harrison looked to entertainment journalists from around the world the day he (and Josh) sat down for the Hollywood Homicide interview at a function room of the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel – cute! He was soft-spoken as usual, never showing any sign of irritation even when the interview was veering towards the personal.
It was my third Conversation with Harrison (the first was in Hawaii in 1997 for Six Days and Seven Nights and then in New York last year for K-19: The Widowmaker). Since Harrison turned 61 – yes, "Sexty-One" – last July 13, I’ve decided to compile 61 of the choicest questions from those three Conversations, questions which you, too, must have been wanting to ask him if you had the chance to.
1. How old are you?
"Sixty-one. I was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago."
2. You enjoy being rich and famous, don’t you?
"Being rich, well... But nothing is good about being famous. You always think, ‘If I’m successful, then I’ll have opportunities.’ You never figure the cost being a total loss of privacy. That’s incalculable."
3. What do you remember most about your childhood?
"Riding my bike and hanging out with my younger brother Terence and building model airplanes. I’ve always loved airplanes – and flying them."
4. What did you study in college?
"Philosophy. But I realized it wasn’t my line. I got bad grades, so I took a drama class and I got an easy A."
5. How much were you earning during your early years as an actor?
"Something like $150 a week, which was not enough to pay for my mortgage and to feed my family."
6. How did you augment your (meager) income?
"I learned carpentry from library books. I hammered out walls while I pursued my acting career."
7. In 1998, People magazine named you as "The Sexiest Man Alive." How did you feel about it?
"I didn’t quite agree with that. I think my face is completely imbalanced. I have a scarred chin, the result of a car accident 30 years ago, and my nose has been broken three or four times."
8. How do you keep trim?
"I keep my body trim with tennis and my mind by piloting my plane(s) and driving fast motorcycles."
9. Where do you feel most at-home in?
"In my secluded (700-plus-acre) ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming which is one of the most beautiful places in the world. There, I can be myself, away from gossip hounds."
10.You wear an earring, don’t you?
"Yes... for six years now."
11. How would you describe Josh Hartnett?
"I call him Josh Hairnet. He’s funny, charming and very serious about his work, which makes me laugh. Josh Hairnet wants so much to be good that sometimes he overdoes it. Do you know how my 12-year-old daughter Georgia calls him? Josh Hotnet!"
12. You started acting back in school (at the Ripon College in Wisconsin). What drew you to acting?
"I tried acting in a bunch of plays and I must admit I was at first terrified by it. Then, I realized I really liked it. Besides, I was not good at anything else but acting and I didn’t want to do what my friends did – that is, work in an office, doing the same thing with the same people for 30 years. And when you retire, you get a watch as reward."
13. What makes you accept a role?
"I read the script first. I read a lot of scripts. I read each one of them until I get disapppointed. And then I move on and read something else. If I actually finish a script, then I’m likely to do it."
14. Is it true that you accepted Hollywood Homicide before there was even a script?
"Yes. I was intrigued by its idea and its story."
15. What sort of outfit are you most comfortable in?
"Jeans and T-shirt."
16. What did you buy with your first salary as a star (as Han Solo in the 1977 George Lucas film Star Wars)?
"I bought that property in Wyoming. That was more than 25 years ago. Owning airplanes is one luxury I allow myself now."
17. Why does flying, aside from acting, make you so happy?
"Partly because it is different from the other things I do. I think that the focus, concentration and the attention to detail that flying requires is a kind of meditation. I find flying restful and engaging."
18. In Hollywood Homicide, you sort of loosen up a bit – you know, doing comedy, dancing a bit. How do you feel about it?
"Oh, I always try to do something different, something new for the audience."
19. How is it shifting from action-drama to action-comedy?
"Well, I always try to do comedy in different kinds of films. Perhaps the comedies I’m best known for are romantic-comedies which are a little quieter (such as Working Girls and Sabrina)."
20. Which part of Hollywood Homicide did you enjoy doing the most?
"The fun part was figuring out how to give expression to the story. There isn’t a part in the movie that’s not fun to do."
21. What about the chase scene around Hollywood?
"It took us three weeks to do that scene because it was very detailed. That was great fun."
22. How did you prepare for the movie?
"Oh, I did some research about the peculiarities of LAPD cops and what their style is. Not much research, though; just a little."
23. Was it fun working with Josh?
"Definitely! He’s fine; he’s very independent. He’s got his own thrust. He has a clear idea about his character. He’s a very good performer."
24. How do you spend time away from work?
"It depends on where I am. If the weather is good, I go flying."
25. Are you bothered by negative reviews?
"I’ve been doing this for quite a while. No, negative reviews don’t bother me; they don’t kill me."
26. Are you affected by the public curiosity about your private life?
"Oh, yes, I was completely unprepared for the public spectacle my personal life has become. No, I don’t like it a bit."
27. Are you happy in spite of this "intrusion" into your privacy?
"I am, I am! I enjoy the kind of work that I do...My kids are in good shape...I’ve got a happy relationship. Yes, I feel pretty happy. I’m perfectly all right."
28. Are you a prayerful person?
"I think so."
29. What do you usually pray for?
"I belong to no organized religion but I’m respectful of other people’s religious beliefs. I think what is central and most meaningful to your life is that which you call God. You’re free to see God in nature and the complexity around us that I find fascinating."
30. I read somewhere that your grandfather was an actor. Acting does run in your family.
"My grandfather was a vaudeville performer who died early in an alcohol-related incident. He left my father’s family poor. My father was a radio actor on the vaudeville circuit; he appeared on a show called Gangbusters. He belonged to a group of five men who travelled around and performed in small towns. What they did was wear tuxedos, stand on the stage and read radio plays. He later shifted to copywriting, something which he wasn’t so happy about."
31. What was your father like?
"Oh, he was good-looking and very charming. He was a good dresser. At the same time, he was a tough guy. He was a disciplinarian. With him, there was a clear line between what was right and what was wrong."
32. What was your father’s religion?
"Roman Catholic."
33. What about your mother?
"She was Jewish."
34. How were you brought up, Roman Catholic or Jewish?
"Democratic."
35. How about being called a sex symbol? Does it flatter you?
"Honestly, I’ve never had that kind of idea about myself. I can’t relate to that kind of thing. The confidence that I have isn’t based on what people call my ‘sex appeal’."
36. On screen, do you use clothes/costumes to help enhance and develop your character?
"Clothes do help identify your character but they also affect the way you move. As Indiana Jones, my swagger came partly from the lace-up boots I wore. In Sabrina, my character was kind of stuffy, sort of affected, so I wore a bow tie every day. That was one and the same bow tie I wore every day."
37. Do you cook?
"Yes, I do. Pasta, salad or something simple. I like easy-to-cook meals."
38. As a carpenter, who were among your clients?
"Sergio Mendes was one of them. And Sally Kellerman, too."
39. When are you happiest?
"When I’m with my family."
40. After Hollywood Homicide, what can we expect from you?
"I’m doing the fourth Indiana Jones installment, with Sean Connery as my father. It will be directed by Steven Spielberg and won’t be released until July 2005. It isn’t long from now, is it?"
41. How much did you get for one of your early films, American Graffiti (1973)?
"At first, they offered me $485 a week and I said, ‘Go (censored) yourselves!’ So they offered me $500. I took it."
42. Do you always do your own stunts?
"Most of the time."
43. How much are you insured?
"Confidential."
44. Have you ever hurt yourself during a shoot?
"A few times. While doing The Fugitive (1993), I tore my knee in a shot which was supposed to be for the trailer... not even for the movie. I was limping around for weeks while shooting for other scenes."
45. How long does it take you to immerse yourself in your character?
"I try to get the feel of the character from the time I start reading the script. And then everything just falls into place as the shooting progresses."
46. Do you consider yourself an action-movie star?
"No, I’m not an action-movie star as I’m often referred to. So far, I’ve done only one movie that falls in that category, Air Force One."
47. What kind of roles do you prefer?
"Those that have qualities of persistence, vulnerability and some degree of intelligence. As soon as I’m into the role, I just do what comes naturally. I never try to follow anybody else’s path; I don’t want to imitate anybody else."
48. You’ve never been an overnight star. How do you feel when you look back at your career?
"My career took time to take off. I see somebody who was grudgingly admitted into the circle and who has managed to stay alive and find fulfilling work. It has been quite an interesting job."
49. Do you have a temper?
"I used to yell but I’ve gotten over it. I rarely lose my temper now. I haven’t lost my temper in years. I try to stay cool."
50. What irks you?
"Well, people who give up easily. People who don’t work hard. People who don’t prepare themselves. People who don’t have any drive or ambition at all."
51. A magazine once described you as The Star of the Century. Did you find it flattering?
"That was for the last century, so I’m starting all over again."
52. Are you vain (like most good-looking guys are)?
"I don’t think so."
53. You’re known to be media-shy. You don’t enjoy being interviewed, do you?
"Not really. At the end of it all, you go home full of self-loathing for having allowed yourself to join this insane dribble. But I guess it’s part of the territory, isn’t it?"
54. To what do you attribute your success?
"Luck. I guess I’ve just been lucky enough to make good movies."
55. During our interview last year (for K-19: The Widowmaker), I asked what your birthday wish was on your 60th birthday. What’s your wish for your 61st birthday?
"Oh, it’s the same. To continue to have a happy and productive life."
56. What’s your idea of happiness?
"I don’t understand happiness as an ambition. As a pure ambition it’s not really worthy. I look at happiness as a by-product. I find my work still lots of fun. I just love working, being on the set, whether things are coming easy or things are going hard. I love the job, I love the problem-solving. That’s happiness for me."
57. Of all the roles that you’ve done, which one comes closest to the real Harrison Ford?
"Not a single one. There are aspects of my personality in every role that I play."
58. What do you think about wars?
"I think economics is always the issue in war, which is at the root of it. Yes, from both sides."
59. What’s the secret, if it’s a secret, of your longevity?
"It has a lot to do with working and being involved with people who are talented. Luck, of course, is a big factor. And ambition, too – you know, the ambition to do good work and to find good projects."
60. If you could have invented something, what would it be?
"An airplane, what else?
61. Please describe Harrison Ford in one word.
"Ordinary."
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)