20 Questions Harrison Ford

Once asked whether or not people said he reminded them of Gary Cooper, Harrison Ford replied with a grin, "Nope." He is a laconic guy with a legend all his own, a Chicago-born former carpenter who has starred in five of the ten top-grossing films in history. He is Han Solo, galactic Galahad. He is Indiana Jones, bullwhip enthusiast. Besides the radiations of the "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" oeuvres, his films include "Blade Runner," "Witness," "The Mosquito Coast" and his current movie, "Frantic," a Roman Polanski homage to the Hitchcockian thriller, played breathlessly against a Parisian backdrop.

Ford lives much of the year on a ranch in a Western state whose name he prefers we not disclose, though we suppose he won't mind if we say that it is big, with mountains and rivers and lots of sky. His second wife, Melissa Mathison (who wrote "E.T."), and his one-year-old son, Malcolm, keep him company. Contributing Editor Bill Zehme hied out onto the range to pelt him with questions. Zehme reports: "We met midmorning in the nearest town, at the nicest hotel, in a roomy suite, where Harrison sprawled on a sofa, devoured a B.L.T., spoke slowly and carefully and frequently apologized for not being funnier. I won't soon forget his first words to me: 'No matter what the first question is, my answer is, "Nineteen to go." ' "

1.

[Q] Playboy: How are we going to keep you down on the farm, now that you've worked in Paris?

[A] Ford: It's going to be a whole lot easier. I don't enjoy cities as much as I do being out here in the country. I don't speak French, though that was not a real difficulty. The way life is conducted there doesn't much interest me. I find the whole routine completely unattractive: eating late, staying up, smoky bistros and all of that. It doesn't have the charm for me that it might once have had. On top of which, I worked every day. I failed to recognize when I first read the script that I was in every scene. So I was very busy. What time was left over was taken up with dealing with the baby. We pretty much stayed home and managed to live the kind of life we live anyplace else.

2.

[Q] Playboy: You're a new father again--after two decades. What are you learning about yourself this time around? What's your position on disposable diapers?

[A] Ford: Oh, I've got a lot more patience at this age. I'm a lot more settled and content in my own life, and it's much easier to deal with all of the frustrations and anxieties of parenting. Malcolm is just beginning to sleep through the night, though I wasn't the one to wake up with him. I don't have the required biological mechanism to soothe him.

Disposable diapers? Oh, I'm all for 'em. There were problems with the first disposables years ago, so I was ready to go back to real diapers. I thought 100 percent cotton couldn't be beat. But this new generation of disposables has come a long way. They wick away moisture from the baby's skin. A cloth diaper could never do it. Yeah, it's a miracle.

3.

[Q] Playboy: When you look in a mirror, do you see the top-grossing film actor of all time?

[A] Ford: No, I see the idiot twin. I see the stubble or the stuff on my tooth or the red in my eye that I looked in the mirror to see. I don't go looking in the mirror to see who the person I'm living with is. Nobody sees in the mirror what other people see--at all. None of us has any idea how other people see us.

4.

[Q] Playboy: Still, we're curious: What does the top-grossing star of all time consider a lot of money to have in his pocket? How much do you have on you now?

[A] Ford: Oh, a lot of money, a lot of money. [Stands up and extracts crumpled bills and change from hip pockets] Here we go. I've got about 22 bucks. Not even. Eighteen dollars and 38 cents exactly. See, money is really only important if you don't have any. I just don't have much to do with it. Most of what I want is not a money issue. I mean, when you're in a situation similar to mine, it can buy you privacy--and time. You have to pay for them.

5.

[Q] Playboy: Which brings us to this: Is being an enigma a tough cross to bear?

[A] Ford: [Startled] Am I an enigma? I don't know; I've answered questions about money and my home life without any visible discomfort. I've somehow gotten a reputation among journalists, most of whom I haven't met, for being difficult. But, you know, I just have a sense of how far I want to go in defining myself. This has nothing to do with a calculated effort to be mysterious or anything else. More than anything, it's a natural reserve that I inherited from my upbringing, though even my parents are a little bit more voluble than I am.

The confusion here is that people's idea of me is made up out of those experiences they have with me on film. And I will argue that I am more revealing on the screen than I am in ordinary life. Maybe it's more interesting to call me an enigma than to see me as the relatively common guy I am. As I've often said, the most interesting thing about me is the work that I do. The rest of it is pretty ordinary. Almost anything else would make a better story, but you're stuck with this one.

6.

[Q] Playboy: You've always been portrayed as being extremely judgmental about yourself. What would you most like to change?

[A] Ford: [Sheepishly] I guess I am judgmental, in some ways. I know when I'm full of shit. I know when I'm wrong. I know when I'm bad. And I know that I could be better in certain things. I'd love to be more fit. I'd love to have more talents in other areas. I'd love to have taken advantage of the education I sort of slept through. I'd love to be more clearheaded. I'd love to be able to play a musical instrument for my own pleasure. I like the sounds of a guitar, a tenor sax, a piano. My fantasy would be tinkling the ivories by myself on late wintry nights, just mumbling the blues.

7.

[Q] Playboy: In The Mosquito Coast, you die on screen for the first time. The movie did disappointing business. Is there a correlation? Did it occur to you that moviegoers might prefer you as an invulnerable hero?

[A] Ford: Heroes die, too, you know. I think people enjoy seeing a tear come out of a rock. It's a miracle, you know? I'm not content simply to do what people expect of me. I mean, I think they just want to see good movies. That particular character is just a (continued on page 142)Harrison Ford(continued from page 111) tough worm to swallow. People were confused as to whether they were supposed to admire him or hate him, and they couldn't quite live with the fact that they were supposed to do both.

I've never really understood the concept of heroes. I don't have heroes. I guess there was about six months when I thought Hank Sauer of the Cubs was a pretty important person. And then I read about Abraham Lincoln, and he was my hero for a while. But I don't remember having any heroes from the movies. I don't know what that's all about.

8.

[Q] Playboy: What will we never see you do in a film?

[A] Ford: I don't have any rules. I just try not to be in films with a point of view with which I'm not sympathetic. I'm not interested in films that have nothing to say. I can't say I wouldn't, for instance, play a Nazi war criminal. I would do anything if it made a good point, had significance. I haven't ruled out musicals, either. Maybe I could be a musical Nazi war criminal.... It's a thought.

9.

[Q] Playboy: How do those toy action figures in your likeness compare with the real thing? Which has more movable parts?

[A] Ford: [Laughs] I haven't really tried to bend one of those little suckers. I don't know; they probably lack a certain anatomical detail. To tell you the truth, I don't think I've ever actually had my hands on one of those dolls. I've seen them. They used to send me big boxes of Star Wars toys as they were manufactured, but I usually just gave the samples away, unopened. I know that it's supposed to be my likeness, but I don't take it personally. I just don't connect with it. I mean, those were George's [Lucas] dolls, George's movies. I just worked there.

10.

[Q] Playboy: Tell us about the secret life of Indiana Jones. What does he do between adventures? Explain his way with women.

[A] Ford: I have no fantasies in that direction. You'll be appalled at the lack of drama in my theories. Indiana Jones, as I see him, is currently reading the latest journals of archaeology, grading papers, trying to catch the eye of the librarian and calling his mom on Mother's Day--nothing very intriguing. But if I were to imagine an off-screen life comparable to his on-screen life, I wouldn't be able to play him with a straight face. So I have to think of him as a real person with a real life.

As for stalking the fair sex, his approach is artless. Remember the scene at the end of Temple of Doom, where he lassoes Kate Capshaw with his bullwhip? I guess he's not a subtle guy. In fact, the only difficulty I ever have with George and Steven [Spielberg] about these stories is that the women have no real weight. The love interest is always engaged in this bitchy kind of repartee with Indy and then falls in a dead swoon for him. I never could understand exactly why.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Just how proficient are you with a bullwhip?

[A] Ford: [Slyly] I do all my own whipping. But it's not a skill I keep up between films. I'm starting to retrain myself for the next one. It's a bit like riding a bike. Once you've learned the basics, you remember them, so that you're not lashing yourself about the head and shoulders as you do when you're beginning. I have bullwhips in various lengths and practice with them on posts and trees. Now it all comes naturally--wrist action, you know. I must say, though, that it was hard to find somebody to teach me. Amazingly, there aren't that many expert hands with a bullwhip.

12.

[Q] Playboy: As a notorious list maker, what's on your current list of things to do?

[A] Ford: At this moment? I have to get the storm-window adjusters out of the local hardware company. I have to draw up the details for the sauna I'm building. I have to find my passport. I'm supposed to pick up something here in town for Melissa, but I've forgotten what it was, so I have to call her and find out. Which is why I make lists to begin with. It derives from a bad memory, a scattered brain. I love lists. Well, what I really like is crossing stuff off lists.

13.

[Q] Playboy: How would you explain to the uninitiated the sensuous joys and wonders of a hardware store?

[A] Ford: Well, they're not what they used to be. They're all bubble pack nowadays. I used to enjoy the places that had boxes of nails and screws and various farm implements and machinery. I used to be able to go in and discuss with the guy behind the counter the concepts and methods of doing things: what item might best suit a project. They used to know something about that.

These days, anything out of the ordinary has to be tracked down and ordered. They no longer sell good tools in hardware stores. Most people have no use for good tools anymore. They'll mistreat and lose a screwdriver before they worry about how much temper there is in the blade. I suppose that says more about a culture than it does about a hardware store. We're living in a disposable, replaceable, jerry-built world.

There was a wonderful place near downtown Los Angeles, Andrew's Hardware. It had five floors of hardware. It was heaven. You'd walk in and smell that red or green sweeping compound on the well-worn wood floor. Gave it that woody smell. Now it's been replaced by a neighborhood Ace store with those plastic packages of ten little screws.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Let's talk carpentry for a moment. What have you built that you're especially proud of?

[A] Ford: Well, the piece of property I bought here in the country had no buildings on it. I put in a road, the electricity and water, a workshop, a couple of other buildings and, finally, the house. I really enjoyed doing that. I'm proud of most of the work that I've done for other people, of the houses that I've built. I was lucky enough to always work for people in Hollywood who could afford to have quality work done. I'm sure there will be some who'll feel terrible about being inadvertently left out here, but I did work for Sergio Mendes, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, Sally Keller-man, director Richard Fleischer, Talia Shire. Steven [Spielberg] makes me go over to the house he's constructing and tell him how long it's really going to be before he can move in. That's the one area of expertise that he really values me for.

15.

[Q] Playboy: Many have tried and failed. Can you describe the sound of a nail being yanked out of oak?

[A] Ford: Green oak or dried oak? Green oak, by virtue of being new and moist, would be less audible. With dried oak, though, it's the classic screech. I don't do nail imitations, but I do remember it's a halting kind of screech.

16.

[Q] Playboy: One of your summer jobs during college was working as a cook on a yacht in Chicago. What were your specialties?

[A] Ford: Well, really, I knew nothing about cooking at the time. My mom gave me an old copy of Joy of Cooking, and I also relied on the Chicago Tribune's reader service, which was still in existence. I'd call them up and ask them whatever I needed to know. I'd say, "This is Harrison again. I know you told me yesterday, but how long do you have to bake a potato? What temperature?" The people I worked for were heirs to the Swift meat-packing family, and all they ever wanted was dead cow, anyway. They were very easy to fool. Unfortunately, we were out on the water frequently and Lake Michigan can get very choppy. I was deeply seasick most of the time. In retrospect, managing to cook under those circumstances was probably the most heroic thing I've ever done.

17.

[Q] Playboy: The world may not be ready to hear this, but can we have the sordid details of your appearance on Love, American Style?

[A] Ford: The producers called me on a Friday and said they wanted me to play a hippie. But there was no time to get me to a costumer. I was to report for work first thing Monday. My character was a hippie who comes to pick up the daughter of a normal middle-class couple. They were to be appalled by my appearance and presence, but I was to furnish them with some sort of helpful hippie philosophy that would mend their troubled marriage.

Monday morning, I went into make-up. I had long hair and a beard, but the first thing they did was ask me to cut my hair and shave. I tried to explain that I was playing a hippie, but they mumbled something about "America inviting me into its living room" and how we wouldn't want to "offend." And I thought, Oh, shit, I'm in trouble here.

But I carried on and went into wardrobe. They asked me to step out of the blue-chambray work shirt and jeans I was wearing and put on a navy-blue shirt with this high collar with contrasting white stitching on it and a pair of burgundy jeans made out of some plastic material with a wide white belt. They even had a scarf with a little ring to put around my neck. And I thought, Somebody has clearly made a mistake here.

So, rather than argue with the wardrobe people, I just put on these clothes and went looking for the producer to point out that I'd been miscostumed. I walked onto the set and somebody directed me to a man standing with his back to me. I tapped him on the shoulder and, when he turned around, I saw he was wearing the same thing I was. He was a hippie producer, I guess. A Hollywood hippie. At least the check went through when I got paid.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Is it true that, early on, you considered changing your name to Kurt Affair?

[A] Ford: I'd gone out to Hollywood from the Midwest and was hired as a contract player with Columbia, one of the last of that breed. The studio guys thought my name was too pretentious for a young man. They had an idea about remolding people into what they thought the audience wanted to see. I was sure that the most important thing for an actor was to hold on to what was individual about himself. I just wanted them to stop asking me about changing my name, so, as an alternative, I suggested the dumbest name I could think of--Kurt Affair. They were understandably chagrined. Feel free to use it, by the way. Motel registers, anything. Then again, it may not be exactly right for motel registers.

19.

[Q] Playboy: In Frantic, your character is a heart surgeon. Is this the first time you've played doctor and been paid for it? Learn any useful medical techniques?

[A] Ford: [Chuckles] Yeah, this is my first doctor. But this is a doctor who does practically no doctoring on screen. I already knew basic C.P.R., and there's a moment when I do that. Still, I wanted to know what the guy actually did at work. It seemed important in order to better understand the character--even if it didn't show up in the film. I met with a couple of heart surgeons and I spoke with other surgeons about heart surgeons. I learned there's a certain degree of authority they have in their world that they seem to want to take into the outside world. Heart surgeons, especially, I found, are among the elite of the doctor world. I also found a certain elegance or vanity of gesture that was common to these guys. Lots of hand movements. I already gesture enough with my hands, so that wasn't a challenge. [Grins] I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV

20.

[Q] Playboy: Have you driven a Ford lately?

[A] Ford: [Pained] Oh, God. I've got a Ford tractor and a Ford truck. A serious answer to an unserious question. You keep giving me the opportunity to be witty and I keep blowing it. My wit is spotty, you know? [Chuckles] No fault of the messenger to Garcia.

hollywood's favorite star warrior and whipcracker snaps back at screen heroes, sensuous hardware and playing doctor

"Stalking the fair sex, Indy is artless. Remember where he lassoes Kate Capshaw with his bullwhip?"