Harrison Ford Returns to Outer Space and Don’t Call Him an Icon

Harrison-Ford-interview

Harrison Ford hasn’t returned to the sci-fi genre since Return of the Jedi until now with ENDER’S GAME, but don’t call the man behind the most iconic characters in cinema an “icon.”  It’s not something he thinks about.

 

The no-nonsense actor shoots straight from the hip discussing his new role in ENDER’S GAME, an adaptation of the futuristic story of an international Military training young teens in combat against the alien invaders in space.  Harrison Ford is Colonel Graff, a man who believes Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) will be the savior of the human race.

Harrison Ford avoided the pitfalls of Hollywood by playing a variety of roles in all genres, but we haven’t seen him in science fiction film since 1982’s Blade Runner and 1983’s Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  To see him return to space seems like a special moment for fans.  It’ll be even more orgasmic if he reprises his role as Han Solo in the JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII.  CineMovie asked Ford at a Los Angeles press conference if he ever thought he’d return to outer space.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether I got to outer space or not. The job is the same, and I don’t have any sort of genre preferences. I look for a good story, good character,… whether Earth-bound or not.”

This is probably not the first science fiction film Harrison Ford was offered, but previous scripts were probably not up to his standards. ENDER’S GAME attracted the 71-year-old actor because of the messages behind it and the “interesting subject” that he hasn’t seen before on celluloid.  He likes that the film poses questions about the military, a young person’s responsibility and the relationship between “young kids and adults.”

 

“I had a sense that they were very ambitious and focused on making a film that I thought would be useful to a young audience. It was all together attractive to me.”

When it comes to lending his iconic name to a science fiction film, the ENDER’S GAME star doesn’t think of it that way.

“Icon means nothing to me. I don’t understand what it means to anybody. It seems like a word of convenience. It seems to attend to the success of the kinds of movie that I did.  There is no personal utility in being an icon.  I don’t know what an icon does, except stand in the corner quietly accepting everyone’s attention.  I like to work, so there is no utility in being an icon.  I don’t really think about it. “

He adds that the only consideration in signing up for role is finding movies that are “engaging and suspenseful.”

When it came to shooting special effects, Harrison Ford agrees its much easier now with computers versus miniature models, but he worries that often you “lose human scale” to the visualization.   “I think you have to be very careful with effects that they don’t overpower the story,” he says.  He adds that human characters are far more important and that often the busy canvas prevents the eye from knowing where to go.

As a training officer, Ford has no action scenes except for floating in 0 gravity which required some wire work, but for the actor, it was just another day in the office and “nothing spectacular.”  “Its better than a real job,” he quips. For the kids, however, he saw first hand the rigorous training they went through, but for him it was “no big deal.”

Ford may not think of himself as an icon, but his young ENDER’S GAME co-stars were a little intimidating by the famous star.  Hailee Steinfeld, one of the gifted students in ENDER’S GAME, reveals her fellow actors were all giddy talking about Ford on set.

 

"It was a lot of banter between all of us just like ‘don’t freak out, but I want to freak out because he’s right there. We were all super excited about working with him. Not just again working with him on any movie but a science fiction movie was a dream.  It was really, really cool. “

ENDER’S GAME director Gavin Hood also felt the Ford affect when he stepped on the set. The X-Men: Wolverine and Tsotsi director admits to feeling nervous along with the young star of ENDER’S GAME Asa Butterfield, but the butterflies soon went away once he yelled “action.”

ENDER’S GAME opens November 1, 2013.

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