‘Force’ is with Ford

A well-piloted career pays off with power, privilege

NEW YORK - Don't worry. Questions about Air Force One, the hijack thriller opening today in which the president goes ballistic against Russian terrorists, will be forthcoming.

Harrison Ford dryly replies with all the enthusiasm of a customer in line at the bank, “I'll try to stay awake.”

Ford, high-minded Hollywood big shot and notoriously stiff interview subject, understands that off-topic inquiries are the price one pays for promoting one's new movie. He submits to some pesky probing.

Emphasis on some.

Take that tiny gold orb twinkling in his left ear lobe. When did that happen? “I was having lunch the Sunday before last with two male friends of mine, both of whom had earring. And I was reminded that I always wanted one. And I thought, ‘Jeez, I don't want to save it for the undertaker to do.’”

No lobe piercing at Tiffany's, however. Instead, he and his wife, E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison, “just walked down Lexington Avenue and found someone to do it.”

President Clinton has Congress to contend with. But whatever Ford wants, Ford gets. Even if it takes a while.

After manning cockpits in the Star Wars trilogy. Air Force One and the upcoming romantic comedy 6 Days, 7 Nights, the onetime carpenter has stopped pounding wood (“The myth is dead. I've lost my chops carpenter-wise.”) and picked up a new hobby. Ford, who just turned 55, finally earned his pilot's license last fall. “It was a long-held ambition of mine.”

Do you own a plane? “At least.”

A couple? Pause. He says in all sincerity, “I'm a lucky guy.”

Studio honchos must go bonkers when one of their $20 million-salaried blockbuster buckaroos takes off in a single-engine plane while in the middle of shooting a movie.

“We have an understanding,” Ford explains.

Another pause.

“I continue to fly.”

The man has power to burn.

Also integrity, talent, good looks and plenty of class. Go ahead, bring up Anne Heche, his love interest in 6 Days - and, offscreen, comic Ellen DeGeneres’ squeeze. All you'll get is, “I never comment even indirectly on the private lives of the people I work with.”

Hard to imagine any actor besides Ford, a cool man in black on a steamy afternoon, who would be as believable - and desirable - in the presidential hot seat. A handful could convey the commander in chiefs hard-nosed moral stand against terrorism. A few could carry off the heroics that are far more Schwarzenegger than Schwarzkopf. A couple could handle the emotions stirred when the first lady and first daughter, both aboard the ill-fated flight from Russia, are threatened by gun-toting thugs.

But Ford somehow pulls off even the plot's Die Hard-iest implausibilities.

Says Air Force One's German director Wolfgang Petersen, “Harrison is the quintessential American movie star, in the real good sense of being an American. He's still a carpenter in a way. He has that same attitude of craftsmanship when it comes to movies.”

Such care pays off. He has been nominated for an Oscar only once, for 1985's Witness. But the man who built household personas out of Han Solo and Indiana Jones (a fourth Indy outing, he assures, is still a possibility) is one of the most commercially successful movie stars of all time. When ticket sales stalled in late summer ‘95, Variety saw little reason beyond the fact there was no Ford vehicle like The Fugitive or Clear and Present Danger.

Though his action films are consistent hits, he thinks too much emphasis is placed on a film's position in the weekly top-10 derby. “I'm sincerely disquieted by the whole notion of the business of films becoming news. If all the people whose egos are massaged by being called No. 1 for one weekend or two would get together and agree not to release the grosses of their films, I think the movie business would be reconverted into something a lot more sensible.”

That doesn't mean Ford isn't sensible when it comes to giving his work a fighting chance in an overstuffed marketplace. Unlike, apparently, Devil's Own co-star Brad Pitt, who bad-mouthed the project even before it reached theaters. Asked if the negative publicity hurt the movie, Ford says in a harsh mumble, “It didn't help.”

Take those phone calls made to other studios that were heard ‘round the world - or at least all over the greater Los Angeles metro area.

When Paramount's shipload of money known as Titanic and Warner Bros. Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts both eyed the same opening day as Air Force One, Ford appeared to let his role go to his head. Instead of shouting “Get off my plane,” as he does in the movie, he stated - in effect - “Get off my date.”

His lawyer called Warner chairman Bob Daly. He himself talked with Jonathan Dolgen of Viacom Entertainment Group, which includes Paramount. He describes the chats as “typical business calls” and insists he's a realist, not a bully. “There is too much product out there being released much too quickly on the heels of the other. And none of us do the business or ourselves any honor by stepping on each other's toes.”

End result: Titanic sailed to fall. Theory moved to August.

Titanic wasn't finished. Theory's makers say they never wanted the date to begin with. But Wendy Crewson, who plays the first lady, was impressed by Ford's gesture. “He does have that rarified air of being enormously wealthy. He has all that Hollywood power. He's a real player in that scene. On the other hand, he's very unassuming and never flaunts that power. There's no vanity in him. And that makes it all the more attractive.”

Their first day on the set, Crewson was pleasantly shocked when Ford didn't just fetch his own mug of java, he got hers as well. “Those people just don't get their own coffee.”

One suspects Ford, who lives in New York but retreats to his Wyoming ranch when he can, would get bored easily if he ever were waited on. One reason he enjoys the action genre is its physicality, and Air Force One is about as physical as it gets. “I try to do all my physical acting. I think it's important that people see my face rather than a double.” While Clinton nurses a hurt knee after tripping on a stairway, fictional prez James Marshall dangles out of a moving plane not once, but twice.

Recently named one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people in the world, he says, somewhat sheepishly, “I thought it would come out much closer to the date of our opening. It's just a silly interview on a silly subject.”

Does he put much thought into his appearance? He chuckles. “What do you think?” Who knows, but when he hangs his leg over his leather chair, his sock never once droops and exposes flesh. Always a good sign in a man.

Ford has never thought about running for office. He votes but says he would not consider himself patriotic “without qualification.” What drew him to Air Force One was the “emotional register” of the family scenes, not the politics. “It's one of the things that makes this film different from other action genre films.” Spoken like a devoted father of four and grandfather of one.

Unlike many actors, he has no desire to direct. Or do character parts. Or play villains. “I like the job I have.” The public is glad he does. Especially the female public.

“The one question everybody has asked me, from my mother to my girlfriends, Crewson says, is, ‘What is it like to kiss Harrison Ford?’ Well, girls, guess what? It's every bit as wonderful as you can imagine. I felt like queen for the day.”

What else would you expect after smooching a box office ruler?

-By Susan Wloszczyna; photograph by Robert Deutsch for USA Today