A Vintage Ford

VETERAN ACTOR IS BACK IN FAMILIAR ROLE -- FIGHTING THE BAD GUYS TO SAVE HIS FAMILY

His face -- with its perpetually furrowed brow, the go-to-hell curl of the upper lip and that intriguing chin scar -- has carried the emotional weight of countless plot twists since it flashed across the heavens nearly 30 years ago in "Star Wars.'' It is a face that Americans have come to trust so steadfastly that it has made Harrison Ford the world's biggest box-office star for the past three decades.

It has been a heavy burden to bear, and now, at 63, Ford's face is beginning to show signs of wear. The furrows in his billion-dollar brow have sprouted tributaries, and as he sits down for an interview in a San Francisco hotel, his eyes look tired from what he says was a late night. Sporting a goatee and a piratical gold earring, Ford has the swagger of a guy hoping to be mistaken for 62.

In "Firewall,'' which opens Friday, he plays a man named Jack who finds himself in a desperate struggle to save his family from some very bad men. When it is suggested to Ford that this Jack resembles Jack Ryan -- who was forced to save his family from some very bad men in one of the actor's earlier hits, "Patriot Games'' -- and even to President James Marshall in his 1997 blockbuster "Air Force One,'' the worried look that usually signals trouble ahead suddenly appears.

"I think that was a very different kind of movie and a very different plot,'' he says, "so I'm not feeling that I'm going back to the same well, or that there is any cause for disappointment. In this one, the genre is one that I have visited before, and the character is not unlike some characters that have been relatively successful. Which is to say, he's not a Russian submarine captain.''

This is Ford's unhappy reference to his role in "K-19: The Widowmaker,'' which placed him in such unfamiliar waters when it was released in 2002 that it became one of his few flops. "I try to pick films that I think an audience will enjoy,'' he says. "And by that, it doesn't necessarily mean that I have for myself some set idea of what the audience requires from me, or even that I'm willing to service that expectation. Because from time to time, I fly in the face of expectations. And I do that for my own amusement.''

As Jack Stanfield, a computer security specialist at a Seattle bank in "Firewall,'' Ford is flying not in the face of expectations as much as his first career slump, following the disappointing showing of the 2003 comedy "Hollywood Homicide.'' He suspects his name above the title creates unrealistic expectations, brought on by his movies' domestic box office grosses of more than $3 billion.

"If you're realistic, I don't think you'd have extremely high expectations for "Hollywood Homicide,' '' he says. "It was a small comedy. Sometimes, what I think of as a small picture, by the time it gets released, people have the expectation that it's a bigger picture than it is. It's not an expectation you can fulfill every shot out of the box.''

One picture that he can almost certainly count on to be a success is the long-discussed fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones'' series. "We're closer than we've ever been,'' he says. "I think it will happen fairly soon.'' However, he dismisses a rumor that he was so smitten with his "Firewall'' co-star, Virginia Madsen, that she has the role of leading lady in "Indy 4'' all but wrapped up. "There is no test of truth for things that appear on the Internet,'' he says.

Ford is developing movies in which he would play character roles, "so that I can create a part that makes sense for me to play as a supporting actor,'' he says. But as he is quick to point out, "I'm not yet offered supporting characters, so I'll continue to play the lead character as long as those are the roles that are offered.''

He has several strenuous scenes in "Firewall,'' including a desperate fight with the picture's villain, played by a much younger Paul Bettany. "Where I am in life is that I'm still fit enough to do what we're doing here,'' Ford says. "So for those people who say, 'A 63-year-old man couldn't do that,' I say, 'What are you talking about? I just did.' ''

- By Bruce Newman

FIREWALL

Opens : Friday
Rated : PG-13 (intense violence sequences)
Cast : Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany
Director : Richard Loncraine
Writer : Joe Forte

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

Firewall: (2006)
What Lies Beneath: (2000)
Air Force One: (1997)
Clear and Present Danger: (1994)
The Fugitive: (1993)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: (1989)
Working Girl: (1988)
Witness : (1985)
Star Wars -- Episode 6: Return of the Jedi: (1983)
Blade Runner: (1982)
Raiders of the Lost Ark: (1981)
The Frisco Kid: (1979)
Star Wars: (1977)
Source: Internet Movie Data Base