European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Paramount Harrison Ford finds the going hot in Clear and present danger which hits military Heaters Friday. Ford drove a Long Way to reach Clear and present stardom by Luaine Lee Scripps Howard h Garrison Ford was scared. He did t like the feeling. So he kept repeating teething that frightened him until it was his first time on the stage a trek he took largely because he was flunking out of College and thought theater might be an easy c. They did t have Basket weaving so i took drama class and found out i had t realized before that you had to get up onstage. That terrified Grace under pressure is How Hemingway de scribed it. While Ford would never ascribe such nobility to himself in a Way he personifies Heming Way s Ideal. He kept trying though he Felt awkward and unsure and unsettled. Once the fear began to go away a Little bit i be came Able to More directly understand what it was that i was doing. I was t up there to be scared. I was up there to Tell a Story he says sitting stiffly on the Edge of a Gold toned Couch in a hotel room in san Francisco. In spite of his whopping Success on the screen Harrison Ford still seems scared. He responds to questions with exacting deliberation. Even so there s a kind of honest earnestness about his answers. Though the Public Side of his Job makes him uneasy he s give it his Best shot. It s the same kind of grudging strength that Ford displays in his roles. As Han Solo in Star wars he was the unwilling swashbuckler. As Indiana Jones he was the academic turned hero. As Jack Ryan in Patriot games and the new Clear and present danger which opens Friday on the cafes circuit he s the reluctant Warrior an Ordinary Joe who discovers re sources he did t know he had. A lot like Ford. This acting is the one thing i know How to do better than anything else he says placing his Coffee cup on the floor. I spent 30 years learning How to do this. It s my work. As much As i love my family love my Home love being away from the business. After a certain length of time i get itchy. This is the place i go to be challenged where i go to get intellectual maybe what makes Ford 52, so seemingly accessible is the fact that he failed once at the thing he loves so much. He was thrown out of College and figured he was t really suited for anything. I said i want to have a different kind of life than All my friends Are setting off to have and it just occurred to me to be an he d done one play in Laguna Beach when co Lumbia studios came courting. They offered me a seven year contract starting at $150 a week. I assume that s what they Clear and present danger review on Page 12 thought i was Worth he smiles. He stayed there for a year and a half and did t work. After his first appearance and one line As a Bell boy in dead heat a producer called him into his of fice. He said sit Down kid he always called me kid even though he was about 14 minutes older than i was. He said i saw the dailies of what you did yesterday. You Ain t got it. You better think of some thing else to do cause you Ain t got it he told me the first time Tony Curtis was in a movie he delivered a bag of groceries and you too Paramount Harrison Ford plays the Cia s Jack Ryan again. One look at that Guy and knew he was a movie Star i said i thought you were sup posed to take one look at the Guy and think he was a grocery delivery boy he said get outta Here and i there is a Point to the Story says Ford. It pretty much defines my understanding of what it is that we do in this business. It also defined the resistance that i faced at that he adds quickly having said that i should Point out that at that Point in time i was t very. Good at what i did. I had a lot of learning to do a lot of experience to acquire and a lot of Craft skills to acquire. So he was right and he was wrong. I was right and i was Ford s agent moved him to Universal at $250 a month and the same thing happened. So Ford tried free Lancing on television. I found i was doing the same thing Over and Over and i did t want to do that. I wanted to work in Dif Ferent projects where there was the Opportunity to strive for something with a higher degree of Ambi Tion. So i quit and became a for about 10 years he worked As a Carpenter moonlighting in a few movies the conversation american Graffiti and getting straight. It was Star wars and his witty space crusader that finally made him a Star. When he talks about his work Ford often uses the word he s interested Only in the Story the film has to Tell not whether the role offers him the Chance to Chew the scenery. I Don t make a judgment about whether a charac Ter is Good or evil he says frankly i m not inter ested in Hannibal Lecter. I Don t care what goes on in the mind of a serial killer. I m not interested in those movies that Are built around disgusting human beings. I would have happily changed parts with Tommy Lee Jones in the fugitive that kind of nem Esis appeals to pie. But bad Guys slavering child molesters Don t Appeal to it s hard to reconcile the Public adoration of Ford with this reticent self effacing Man. He shakes his head when he s reminded that he is often characterized As one of Hollywood s sexiest stars. Sex Appeal has nothing to do with it he says blowing his nose on a White handkerchief. All you have to do is be in Good movies that Are very Success Ful. And if you re in Good movies that Are successful people will think you re Ford is married to screenwriter Melissa Mathison e.t., the extraterrestrial. They have a son Mal Colm 7, and a daughter Georgia 4, and live on a big spread in Wyoming. Ford has two older sons 25 and 28, by his first wife Mary. He has tried to have his Small children with him when he was shooting a film. But his 7-year-old is now in school and needs his own place in his peer group says Ford. I m not the Ideal father. I m not Here for a father s Day conference on How to raise kids. I did the Best i could with the equipment i had and the personality i have. I m trying to do better now with this acting was something that Ford who describes himself As a Runty kid who did t play sports fell into As a kind of last resort. But he likes it because it still scares him. There s a kind of front line feeling to it he says. It s dangerous in that the potential for screwing up and making mistakes Are so that it s important to do it his upcoming film will be a remake of Sabrina in which he plays the Humphrey Bogart role. But first things first. Ford s next project demands the skills that saw him through the Tough times. He s building a treehouse for his kids. August 21,1994 sunday Page 11
