BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 15, 2000 — They say Harrison Ford doesn’t like press. They say the immensely private star of four of the 20 highest-grossing movies of all time is aloof and difficult to interview.
Whoever wrote those words hasn’t seen Harrison Ford today, for the 58-year-old actor is smiling and joking as he promotes his latest film, What Lies Beneath. Maybe it’s because after playing hero after hero, the box-office giant gets to show a different side in this ghostly tale of a less-than-perfect husband and the past wrong that winds up terrifying him and his wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
“It’s a very different kind of film for me,” Ford says of the supernatural-thriller genre. “But it all starts out the same: They seem to be two admirable people with a fairly normal relationship, and then strange things begin to happen.”
When doors begin opening and closing around the couple’s restored Vermont home, the couple jokes about ghosts. Then when filled bathtubs and falling picture frames frighten Pfeiffer, Ford, who plays a scientist, is convinced that it’s all in her imagination.
But it isn’t. Whatever’s shaking up their lives isn’t going away, and as Pfeiffer investigates further, she learns the ghost may be linked to a student with whom Ford had an affair a year ago. As the chilling plot continues to twist, it is clear the apparition is there for a purpose — and she won’t go away. The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump”) and co-stars Amber Valletta and Diana Scarwid.
If it sounds like a crowd-pleaser, that’s exactly Ford’s intent. Aside from his hit-or-miss romantic films (Hit: “Working Girl,” Miss: “Random Hearts”) and the occasional departure role (“Mosquito Coast,” “Regarding Henry”), Ford has perfected the art of the reluctant hero. As his son Malcolm shared with his class a few years ago: “[Sometimes my dad] helps the good guys so the bad guys don’t win, and sometimes he’s a lawyer.”
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“I don’t think so much about how they will respond to me, but I think about how they’ll respond to the story, to the material, to the movie we’re about to make,” says Ford of his choices. “I really am drawn to those things that I think will be entertaining. I like making movies for the audience rather than sort of satisfying my own interest.”
Three of his most memorable characters — Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan — even took their heroics into sequels. But Ford, who guided the character of Ryan through the smash hits Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, recently turned down the chance to play the CIA agent for the latest Tom Clancy adaptation, The Sum of All Fears.
“I didn’t think the material had the same kind of potential as the two films we’d done before,” Ford says.
But the one character he’s itching to play again is a certain fedora-wearing archeology professor. It’s been 11 years since Indiana Jones the Last Crusade, but Ford has made it known that as soon as the right script comes along, he’ll start the whip cracking.
“We’re still searching for a script now that we all think is gonna be good or better than what we’ve done before,” he says. “We’ve all sat down and talked about a lot of ideas and different ideas, and I put my two cents in. But the scripts have always been developed by George Lucas and he hands it over at a certain point to Steven [Spielberg] and I for finishing it up.”
But is he only willing to do one more Indy flick? How about another trilogy?
“I’d be very happy to find one,” Ford says, laughing. “[We’ll] do one, then we’ll talk.”
What Lies Beneathcreeps into theaters July 21.
