He’s been a space-faring scoundrel, an adventuring archeologist, an undercover cop among the Amish, a fugitive from justice and even the President of the United States. But are you ready for Harrison Ford, techie?
Well, you better get ready. Ford spends a decent amount of time working the computer in his new thriller Firewall, playing a security specialist for a financial firm who’s forced to subvert the very high-tech safeguards he created when a sophisticated but brutal team of thieves takes his wife and children hostage in hopes of stealing millions. But fans of Ford’s action hero persona needn’t fear, for his Everyman character is soon rising to the occasion and punching more than computer keys as he struggles to free his family and his clients’ cash.
For Paul Bettany, who plays the menacing criminal who invades the life of Ford’s character, it wasn’t exactly easy to find a comfort zone squaring off against the iconic screen presence much of the world grew up watching as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. “It was initially very daunting because, I mean, it’s the first Paul Bettany movie that Harrison Ford has ever been in. He was understandably a little bit nervous and I tried to put him at his ease,” the actor joked, before admitting there was definitely an intimidation factor going in. “I think that it was ’79 when I saw Star Wars, which puts me at eight years old,” said Bettany. “I didn’t dare say that. Who would dare? ‘I was eight when I first saw your work.’” [But] he dispels all of that immediately when you meet him.”
“I really enjoyed working with him. He’s very professional and very focused,” said Virginia Madsen, who plays Ford’s wife in the film, suggesting that it might actually be better to be introduced to the actor at a young age. “He was really, really fun with the kids.”
Harrison Ford, a softie? Hard to believe, especially when the actor gets into a knock-down, drag-out, knuckle-busting fight with his tormentors. In the following sit-down interview, the actor tells Hollywood.com about breaking the bank, throwing down with Bettany, inadvertently Punk-ing Madsen and, yeah, putting on the old fedora and cracking the whip once more as Indy.
Hollywood.com: Your character is one of the leading security experts for financial institutions, and he’s pretty innovative with the way he uses everyday technology to get an edge on his adversaries. How tech-savvy are you?
Harrison Ford: I’m a computer user and have been using them since they came out. I’m not very sophisticated about it, but I did, in order to understand it, a lot of research about what we’re dealing with here and the specifics of what we nominate as a process to do this. I just wanted to make sure that what we were nominating as a process that would work up to a point does work. Everyone that we talked to in the banking world or the computer software business–people who create programs for the protection of banks–when we ran the string of circumstances by them, they said that it was possible. And then when you added that their family was being held with a gun to their head and that they were involved in defeating their own system, they said, “Well, yes. That works.” So then, after you’ve had a couple of these exchanges, you say to them, “By the way, what do you do about your own security? Have you ever thought about this?” And they all said, “Well, not much.” But it gave many of them significant pause.”
HW: Do you put a high priority on personal security in your own life?
HF: It would be silly of me to say so one way or the other.
[Bettany: “Harrison Ford‘s security is that he walks very quickly. He just walks quickly. We’re walking through New York City and there are people going, ‘Is that Harrison Ford?’ But they’re five hundred yards behind him by that point and that’s it. And it’s so refreshing, so refreshing and no one gives you any bother.”]
HW: What was about this script that you liked so much?
HF: I looked at it as an actor and I saw potential in the role for what I thought would be an interesting characterization, and of course I wanted to have a good story to ground that character in. That was very important to me–that the story be as strong as I thought that the character was. What I saw was the potential to explore a character who was under tension at about the eleventh minute of the film, under extreme duress and tension, and it was an interesting problem for me to try and articulate that tension without wearing out my audience welcome. It’s a recipe like any other. If you have a taste for it, you refine the recipe as you go.
HW: Was it gratifying to get Virginia Madsen, in her first role after Sideways, to play your wife in the film?
HF: I think that it’s a difficult part for an actress, and I was really pleased that we had someone of her quality and talent to work with. The damsel-in-distress thing can be difficult. It’s the same kind of problem that I was relating with my character. I think that occurs as an issue in her character as well. As a member of the team I was nominated to call her and encourage her to commit. I left a message on her answering machine. It was a very typical professional call. We were anxious to have her join us. We had sent the script and we hadn’t heard. She was at a moment when she getting likely as many offers as she’s ever had in her life.
[Madsen: “I thought that it was a joke. I thought that someone was pulling my leg because I got the Oscar nomination and I had wanted to do the Harrison Ford movie, and I thought it was going to another actress. So I was like, ‘That’s not funny!’ I was like [blasé] ‘Hi, it’s Virginia Madsen, Harrison.’ Then it began to dawn on me that it’s him. You can’t imitate him, and as soon as he was like, ‘Well, I think that you would make a very good wife for me.’ I was like, ‘So do I!’”]
HW: You have an especially good rapport with Mary Lynn Rajskub in the movie. Had you discovered her by watching 24?
HF: No. I’ve never seen it before–I’m sorry. She was wonderful right in front of my face, and so I didn’t really go looking for evidence.
HW: Firewall has some pretty brutal, but realistic-looking, fight sequences. Did you go through rigorous training to prepare for them?
HF: No. It’s acting. It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s choreography. It’s understanding the physics of a fight scene. It’s breaking it down into manageable pieces and placing the camera in the right place to reflect the energy of a fight scene. It’s articulating it with a beginning, middle and an end and it’s a short story, that fight scene, in a way. And you have to make sure that there is story in it. Otherwise it becomes a mush of the action.
[Bettany: “He’s a tough son of a bitch. I threw that bastard through a window seven times and not only did he get up and get thrown again, he rebuilt the window in between. I hit that bloke. I really wound up on him one time because he wanted to feel the punch, and I was pulling it and he had a pad on. He wanted to be able to react to it and so he asked for a bit more and a bit more and a bit more, and finally I let loose on him and he said, ‘That’s it.’ It’s quite humiliating. I’ve given Harrison Ford my best shot and he got right back up.”]
HW: The fight is quite impressive–and quite believable in its realism, compared to most Hollywood brawls. The audience really feels every punch and kick.
HF: That’s why I think that you can really participate in this one emotionally. I watched people last night for the first time from the front of the theater. I’d of course sat in the back of the theater when we were test screening, but last night I was waiting to do a Q&A after we screened it and I watched the audience through a crack in the curtains for the first time and I found it very interesting, the physical behaviors of the audience during the fight. About 60 percent of the people had either one or both hands up like this next to their faces. Whatever it is, they were participating in it and I thought that was very interesting.
[Director Richard Loncraine: “Most of the credit should go to Harrison. He choreographed that sequence. I have a certain amount of experience doing action, but not as much as someone like Harrison has. He was wonderful to watch. The only doubles I think we used were Harrison falling down the stairs–but only half of that, he did about half of the fall, and Harrison falling into a trench–certain things where you can’t risk it.”]
HW: You took on a producing role on Firewall and guided the project through its development. Are you taking an active hand on developing the fourth Indiana Jones film at all?
HF: No. I don’t work on the development of the Indiana Jones scripts. That’s just not the way it works in that case.
HW: But you are still committed to do one more.
HF: Yes. There is a script. We don’t have a [start] date yet.
HW: Do you really think that it’s finally going to happen?
HF: Yeah, I do.
HW: There’s such an enormous fan base out there for it. Do you enjoy the character as much as the fans do?
HF: I’m very gratified for that. I think that the films are enormous fun.
HW: Have George Lucas and Steven Spielberg asked for any input from you, for things you’re interested in doing this time around?
HF: They don’t have to ask. I was mostly concerned about the historical time in which we place the next adventure.
HW: Is that going to be set in the 1950’s?
HF: Approximately, yes. The ’50’s is your answer.
HW: What’s the greatest adventure that you’ve had?
HF: Raising children.
HW: Has being a senior citizen in an industry when teenagers become millionaires, changed your perception of Hollywood?
HF: It changes. Yes, of course it’s different, but it’s incremental. I’ve been able to accommodate it because it’s happened year by year, and it’s not a real blow to me. I didn’t just wake up one morning 63 years old.
[Loncraine: “He’s a very tough man. He was doing some interviews with students, university press, and a young student said ‘Mr. Ford, do you not think you’re a bit old to be playing in ‘Indy 4?’ And he said, ‘Do you want to step outside and find out?’”]
HW: Is acting as much fun for you today as when you were starting out?
HF: In many ways it’s more fun. It’s more fun because I suppose that over the years I have gained more information, more understanding and feel more comfortable.
HW: And at this point you don’t have to act if you don’t want to.
HF: Yeah. But it’s my job. It’s what I do. It’s what I spent my life learning how to do, and it would be very hard for me to give it up.
