Dann Gire revisits 1982 interview with original 'Blade Runner' Harrison Ford
Editor's note: The following is Film Critic Dann Gire's 1982 interview with original "Blade Runner" Harrison Ford and director Ridley Scott. It has been slightly edited from the original.
Most people probably don't realize Harrison Ford's chin has a history.
Just below his lower lip rests a roguish scar, a horizontal and ragged slash that is neither ugly nor distracting, but a mark of character much like Charlton Heston's famous broken nose.
One may imagine the actor received the mark while performing some courageous feat of heroism against Darth Vader's intergalactic fascist storm troopers. Or, perhaps he suffered a wound while fighting those less celestial fascists, the Nazis.
Then again, maybe it's a souvenir from his latest futuristic battles in “Blade Runner” in which he which he plays a fascist Dirty Harry cop circa the year 2020. If not that, what then?
“It's a dueling scar. A saber,” he finally mumbled after what is generally referred to in writing circles as a long pregnant pause. The words carried a tone of hopeful finality. His interviewer waited patiently for the rest of the story. He reluctantly continued.
“I was at a university in Germany and got involved in a dueling society. Well, I'm a little ashamed of it (the scar). It was a long time ago. It was a foolish thing to do.”
Another pregnant pause.
He was uncomfortable with the question and kept looking out the window of his hotel room. It was an experience he cared not to share, but still he answered his interviewer's unspoken question.
“Well, let's just say it was over a woman. I don't like to talk about it.”
There was nothing hopeful about his tone this time. It was final.
Harrison Ford, like his motion picture alter egos Bob Falfa, Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Rick Deckard of “Blade Runner,” is a man of striking personal presence and few words, something that makes for a terrific screen persona but not for the kind of sizzling and candid interviews entertainment writers kill for.
From Han to Indy
While he can look back on a movie career filled with commercial disappointments such as “The Frisco Kid,” “Force 10 From Navarone,” “Hanover Street” and “Heroes,” he has some consolation, namely, three of the most popular motion pictures in history, “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Also, he's got his co-starring role in “American Graffiti” (which launched his “overnight” success) to be proud of as well as small appearances in Francis Ford Coppola's “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now.”
Not a bad track record for a former carpenter from Park Ridge about to turn 40.
The characters created by Ford share several traits. They are generally dependable people who know who they are and are fully capable of rising to the occasion, whatever and where ever it is.
Ford's men are Real Men, as defined in the best-seller “Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.” Not only do Ford's characters avoid eating quiche, they probably don't even know how to spell it.
One writer observed of Ford's screen appeal: “He has a boyish innocence balanced by rock-fisted toughness, jut-jawed determination, and layered atop cornfield charm.”
The popular actor recently completed his third appearance as space smuggler Han Solo in the last installment of the initial “Star Wars” trilogy.
He's still got some final jobs to perform on “Return of the Jedi,” which will tie up the loose ends from “The Empire Strikes Back,” the biggest one being whether the fearless space adventurer will ever escape the carbonate block in which dastardly Darth encased him.
This subject wasn't one that thrilled Ford, either. His eyes darted to the window.
“It would be tough to describe it ('Return of the Jedi'). And if I did, I would be violating a confidence,” he said flatly. “It's full of satisfaction. That's as far as I can tell you about it.”
But surely cool Han, Luke Skywalker's best buddy, doesn't spend the entire movie, pardon the expression, stoned?
“No, no, I don't,” Ford said. “I come back in some form or another.” But not like the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he added.
Back to the future
In the summer of 1983, the lanky actor will regroup with the wunderkind team of director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas to begin shooting the sequel to last year's hottest box office attraction, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
The original blockbusters offered villainous Nazis, a zillion snakes, thrill-a-minute stunts and a finale with the wrath of God. How can a sequel match or exceed that?
“If it's (the first sequel) successful and well-received, we'll do another one,” Ford said. “I can't tell you anything about it.”
Other verboten discussion subjects include Ford's personal life, although he would say that his two sons, ages 16 and 13, “are not unbalanced at all in their understanding of things” in Hollywood.
Fortunately, Ridley Scott, the talented English film director who supervised Ford's latest picture “Blade Runner,” had accompanied the actor on his press tour for Warner Bros.
Scott, a durable and articulate fellow, said Ford was his first choice as detective Rick Deckard in “Blade Runner,” opening in Chicagoland June 5.
The film takes place in 2020, a time when science has developed near-perfect human duplicates to perform menial labor on other planets. But because these “replicants” have been made so close to human, they eventually develop their own emotions and yearn for their own lives.
They sneak back to Earth and become an illegal immigrant problem. Police assassins, called “blade runners,” hunt and kill them.
Dick Deckard was the best blade runner. When a group of renegade replicants kills more than 30 humans and tries to infiltrate an Earth city, the police call Deckard out of retirement.
“The story had to be set in the year 2020 for the plot,” Scott said. “Genetics must be developed to the degree that they are in the story. We took a guesstimate on how much genetics are going to develop in the next few years.
“We guessed (replicants can be made) in about 40 years, which I think is rather optimistic. Consequently, we're dealing with a near future and a tangible future, so, in a sense, it's not futuristic.”
Scott learned his filmmaking craft while making television commercials for more than 10 years. In the TV business, he learned how to move quickly and get exactly the look and texture to a scene he wanted.
“The visual side of a film is a bit like the sculpting process in the sense that you put it together. You chip a bit off here, a bit off there, except in film it's reversed and you're adding pieces.”
Casting Deckard
Scott, whose unmistakable flair for atmosphere permeates his critical and commercial hits “The Duellists” and “Alien,” indirectly coaxed his star into speaking on one of the few topics he found words for — acting.
Scott was asked why he sought out Ford for the role of Deckard, a futuristic version of the 1945 private eye.
“This is a tough question,” he said. “Harrison seems to have a lot of knowledge about the whole process of making films. Therefore, one finds him contributing (to the filmmaking process) on a high level.”
Ford added in what seemed to be a single breath, “Those people who have enough security in themselves realize it's a collaborative enterprise and there are lot of people who are involved in who try to get the best efforts out of everybody and it doesn't matter where an idea comes from as long as it's a good idea and Ridley encouraged that kind of atmosphere as most good directors do.”
Scott said, “Many actors care not to get involved in that whole thing, they simply choose not to know about it or just don't know about it.”
“Or don't work hard enough,” Ford said. “It's a very complex job. A lot of pressure, a lot of difficulties arise that are unforeseeable. Everybody's got to work together as best they can so they can make the picture.”
“Harrison was our first choice, although he took a little bit of pursuing,” Scott said. “We started with the film to be shot in England, and that was partially why he wasn't too enthused.”
“I didn't want to leave home,” Ford said, almost displaying his charming Han Solo grin.
“For various reasons, the film location changed,” Scott said. “In order to get the look we wanted, we decided to shoot in America.”
The biggest difference between shooting in America and Britain, he said, is that there are union members who man the cameras and union rules prohibit a director from shooting his own movie.
In his years of TV, commercial movie and theatrical moviemaking overseas, he always shot his own films.
“That, of course, doesn't have to be part of directing, but it was my way of working,” Scott said. “I had to accept that.
“It meant that the whole process of selecting a main camera unit was that more careful. Suddenly not to be able to wield my own clubs, so to speak, seems slightly archaic.”
'A difficult job'
Scott is preparing for his next movie. Ford, meanwhile, said that until the “Raiders” sequel begins next summer, he doesn't have any professional plans.
“I've entertained some possibilities, but I haven't got a whole lot of ambition to work next year.
“I'd like to take care of things in my own life. I would enjoy the time off right now,” he said. “I've got a lot of odds and ends. People to see. Places to go. Watches to get repaired.”
The last time the Daily Herald caught up with Ford, he was in Hollywood promoting “The Empire Strikes Back” to press people from around the country. Then, he said that if he couldn't get any good film roles, he'd just go back to carpentry as he had done before.
Does that mean he'd be satisfied working either job?
“That's a misconception,” he said.
“Being an actor is a much more interesting job. To do it for money is great. To do it for money and do it well. It's a difficult job, but I enjoy what I do in films.
“It's very demanding, and I like that. Not only that, I get to work with a lot of people and go a lot of places.”
With each successive starring role, Ford's stoic countenance and angry chin scar get more publicity, making it increasingly difficult for the actor to walk the streets unnoticed.
How does he deal with keeping his privacy while working in an extremely public position?
“It's not hard,” he said. His eyes darted back to the window.