Stealing His Own identity
The actor known as Harrison Ford begs forgiveness, but every once in a while, he says he has no choice but to say yes to a ‘Harrison Ford movie.’
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to rightfully peg Harrison Ford as the star of a film with this thumbnail plot description: a beyond-middle-aged businessman is forced to take part in a robbery by mercenaries who are holding his family hostage, but decides to use all his might to aggressively fight his captors and save his family.
A former carpenter who famously shot to stardom with iconic roles in the beloved Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Ford spent much of the ‘90s playing action-thriller heroes avenging injustice that had befallen his wife and/or children, in films such as Patriot Games, The Fugitive and Air Force One. His latest film, released ahead of the still-possible Indiana Jones 4, finds Ford turning the tables on his family’s kidnappers as Jack Stanfield, a security specialist who must figure out a way to penetrate the elaborate system he created for a Seattle bank.
Jack doesn’t intend to steal any money, nor let any harm come to his family. In order to triumph over the bad guys, he must outsmart and outrun them, and in the film’s climax, he even tries to outfight the character played by Paul Bettany, in a messy, brutal-by-PG-13-standards bit of extended fisticuffs.
It would be disturbing to watch most 63-year-olds get tossed around onscreen by the much younger Bettany, but to see Ford in the action scene is just business as usual. “He’s almost a genre himself now,” Bettany observes during a recent interview with FilmStew. “He does that mild-mannered-executive-turned-into-animal-to-protect-family immaculately, and that’s what I wanted to be a part of.”
When the man himself is asked what constitutes ‘a Harrison Ford movie,’ Ford cheekily responds, “I think that’s a movie that I’m in,” before more sincerely adding, “I think they’re talking about thematics, and my being in other films that have relatively the same thematic structure. And there would be no such thing as ‘a Harrison Ford film’ without some of them at least having been successful.”
But the actor, who has lately also dabbled in romance (Sydney Pollack’s remake of Sabrina) and comedy (Hollywood Homicide), and has done more TV publicity for Firewall than perhaps any other movie in recent memory, acknowledges, “if I did the same genre, if I did thriller after thriller after thriller, like this, I would wear out my welcome as easily as if I did one romantic comedy after another. I like to do a variety of different things. So every once in a while, you’ll have to forgive me for doing what others may call ‘a Harrison Ford movie.’”
What attracted Ford to this particular specimen of ‘Ford movie’ is the Hitchcockian set-up, which positions average guy Jack in a seemingly impossible trap to escape from. “What I was particularly interested in,” Ford explains, “was the challenge of trying to create a character that, for about 90% of the film, is under extreme tension. And the question of how to make that palatable, how to make that sustained for an audience, how to articulate that seemed to be an interesting challenge.”
While Ford’s role in front of the camera is certainly integral to selling Jack’s struggle, just as key was the by now standard re-tooling work the actor helped bring about behind the scenes. Everyone involved in the production of Firewall readily claims that Ford helped streamline the script with Forte and director Richard Loncraine (Richard III, Wimbledon), who took over helming duties after original choice Mark Pellington (Arlington Road) had to drop out due to the tragic, untimely death of his wife.
Most vocal about Ford’s contribution to the story is co-star Virginia Madsen, who goes so far as saying, “ Harrison fought for every human moment in that movie. [He would say], ‘No, you have to let the characters do that. You have to let them be real. You have to let them talk to each other.’ So he was very invested in this movie.”
Madsen specifically credits Ford for helping her to flesh out the characters of the wife and their two Stanfield children (played by Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett). “If you didn’t care about the family, you wouldn’t care how or why he saved them,” the actress reasons. “So he wanted some depth to that relationship, and I wanted it to be a marriage. I wanted to be his partner, not just the screaming wife.”
And Madsen, a former ‘80s star whose comeback in 2004’s Sideways garnered her a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, certainly had no qualms about being onscreen partner to an actor twenty years her senior. “He’s not like his age,” she observes. “I mean, I’d date him! I wouldn’t kick him out of bed!”
Harnessing the star’s barely diminished sex appeal was likely not so much a challenge for director Loncraine as was being open to Ford’s input. But the filmmaker claims that much of Ford’s advice proved to be a help rather than a hindrance to the production. “He was a demanding man to work for, but in the best sense of the word,” Loncraine insists. “He questions everything you say, but [he’s] not like an actor who tries to block out a scene.”
For his part, Ford justifies his co-auteur status by emphasizing, “I care passionately about the product that I’m offering to people with my face on it, and I feel responsible to the audience, and I do the best I can under the circumstances to make a good film for them.”
Counting himself among Ford’s fans is Bettany, a British actor on the rise after acclaimed performances in films as diverse as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Lars von Trier’s Dogville. When asked if the experience of making a film with Ford was daunting, Bettany jokes, “I think it probably was, because I think it was the first Paul Bettany movie that Harrison Ford had ever done. I tried to put him at ease, and he was understandably nervous. I was easy on him.”In truth, Bettany has no illusions about the secondary role he plays in Firewall. The actor pooh-poohs the myth that every actor playing an antagonist approaches the task as if he or she were actually playing an unfairly judged protagonist. “If you’re an adult human being that’s conscious, you can read it and go, ‘oh, I’m playing the villain,’” he maintains. “Because otherwise, you go, ‘I played a f*cking hero in that movie! That clever editing, they changed [that]!’”
Loncraine is equally no-nonsense about his working methods, and is especially proud that he delivered a lean, 105-minute cut to Warner Bros. “Most directors tend to put in rough cuts that are usually three or four hours long,” the filmmaker notes. “I hate long movies. I just think, you don’t walk out of a film because they’re 20 minutes too short, do you? You walk out because they’re 20 minutes too long.”
If viewers stay put for the entirety of Firewall, they’ll likely leave the theatre eager to see Ford pummel evildoers again, only not in a suit and tie but with the fedora and whip that he has made legendary. On the subject of Indiana Jones 4, which may reunite the star with Madsen if the latest Internet rumors are to be trusted, Ford ensures, “we have pretty much settled on a story, and [are] doing some script work. And hopefully it’ll happen.”
When asked if the 17-year-long stretch between the last installment, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and this one will mean any major changes for Indy, Ford answers, “Well, it’ll be somewhat different, because we’re…”
At this point, Ford stops mid-sentence, before correcting himself with, “no, that’s not true. It’s gonna be exactly the same.” For Ford fans, more trademark spectacular thrills is a reassuring proposition. The franchise ain’t broke, so there’s no need for Ford to fix it.- By Brett Buckalew
