Harrison Ford: I am not an action hero

Harrison Ford is a class act. He’s been on both sides of the law, playing the fugitive and the President of the United States, and has saved the world countless times as Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan. One of the world’s smartest (and oldest) action heroes returns to theaters this weekend with the release of “Firewall.” Luckily, the publicity-shy actor took a break from appearing in absurd Dr. Seuss-inspired Super Bowl commercials to open up to WSN in a conference call.

Q: How do you feel about being typecast as an action hero?
Harrison Ford: Well, I’m not so sure that I am because I’ve also done comedy and historical drama. So I’m pretty happy that I get access to a variety of different genres.

It’s been three years since we last saw you in “ Hollywood Homicide.” What were you doing during that break?
Well, “Firewall” took a particularly long time to bring to the screen because, as good a script as it was to start with, we had a lot of work to do. There were things we wanted to accomplish and unfortunately we lost our first director, who had to drop out due to a tragedy in his family. So when we found another director, we began to craft the script to reflect some of his concerns. It took about two years to get to the screen, and I had anticipated it would be much quicker. But once I got involved, I wasn’t able to really break off and go do something else. In the past, I’ve normally done one film a year and I intend to continue doing it that way, so this is an unusual turn of events for me.

It’s been long-rumored that Tom Selleck turned down the chance to play Indiana Jones. Has there ever been a role that you’ve passed on that you regret?
No. If I have an opportunity to do something and I pass on it, it’s because I couldn’t figure out how to do a good job on it. I don’t regret passing up a role when I see somebody else have success with it.

How do you feel about the public’s image of you as an action hero?
It means that they’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m not an action hero. I’ve never actually done action films. I do thrillers that have action in them. I do films like “Indiana Jones,” which I think of as kind of fantasy-comedy. “Indiana Jones” is as close as I’ve come to doing an action film. I think of films like “Lethal Weapon” as action films — I’ve never actually done one like that.

Any plans to step behind the camera?
I’m not that anxious to get into directing. I enjoy what I’m doing. I think you have to have a certain visual skill to be a director. I think probably the most important thing is you have to want to be the boss in a way. I really prefer a collaborative atmosphere and I really enjoy not being the boss, not having to shoulder all of the responsibility. I feel like I’m taking on enough responsibility when I appear in a film.

You appeared in “American Graffiti,” a film driven by its ensemble cast. Are you considering taking any supporting roles in the future?
I am, in fact, developing a couple of things in which I will play a supporting part. The problem is that if you’re not in the development business these days — if you do play a supporting part — you’ve got to understand that you may not have as much influence over the script and the production as the person that’s playing the starring part. And it’s important to have a creative influence on the project because it’s being offered under my name. So if the right supporting part came along then, yes, I would take it. But I’m like a fireman — I don’t want to put out a little trash fire in a dumpster. If I’m going to pull on my boots, I want to fight the big one.

I mean, this is my job. This is what I do for a living. The fact that it’s a very good living has nothing to do with it. It’s the same thing. You make choices in your job, which are supposed to protect your prerogatives. And you get the professional freedom to choose which subjects to explore and which character to play from appearing in films that are, to some degree, successful. So the fact that I was in a film as successful as “Star Wars” allowed me choices that I had never had the opportunity to [make] before. But like every other case in which you have freedom, there’s a responsibility attached. I feel it’s my responsibility to make a film as good as I can make it because some people come to see a film because they’ve had a good experience with me in another film.

Let me tell you a story. I was once in New York, and I was walking to my car, which had been parked for too long a period of time next to a meter. As I approached, I saw somebody begin to write a ticket. Like everybody else, I tried to talk them out of it. I said, “Hey,” from the middle of the street as I approached. He turned around and looked at me and said two words: “ Mosquito Coast,” and snapped it onto the windshield. He didn’t like “ Mosquito Coast” and he was giving tickets. And that’s my favorite movie that I’ve done. So I don’t like the guy and I don’t like the ticket, but it’s his choice. Everybody has a different idea of what it is that they want. All you can do is satisfy yourself that you’ve done the best job you can, that you’ve brought the material to the finest focus you can obtain and it’s as strong as you can make it. Then you have to let it go.

When people see a Harrison Ford film, do you think some of them are responding to your public persona rather than to the particulars of your character?
It may well be that people are relating more to what they take to be my persona, but my persona is a dramatic construction of its own. Perception is in the eye of the beholder and people perceive me in a way that is not an exact match for who I am. My cultural utility to them has been established by their experience with the films that I’m in. I am not the person that they experience in the films except to the extent that is the tool that I employ to describe characters. An actor has his own intelligence, imagination and experience to draw upon. I do think people see us in a way that is influenced so greatly by what it is that we do for them that it is in fact not terribly accurate.

Maybe that’s why a film like “K-19” is so hard for me to get people to accept because over the years their experience has generated a preconception of why I’m there. So, while image can definitely be a limiting factor in one’s career, you have to do what you can to alleviate that limitation. I’ve tried to do that from the very beginning of my career by picking a rather wide range of characters, from “Alley Fox” to “Regarding Henry” to more mainstream things like “Witness,” but then I’ve always tried to stir the pot a little with things like “K-19.”

Apart from " Indiana Jones 4," is there anything else that you’re looking at?
I am going to do a film called “Manhunt,” which is the capture of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. I have three or four things in development, which are beginning to look really good. So I don’t know what I will do after “Manhunt” or the “Indiana Jones” film.

- By Jeff Sneider, Staff Writer