LOS ANGELES − Harrison Ford is feeling uncharacteristically emotional as he hangs up his famous fedora.
During the sentimental rollout for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” his fifth and final film in the beloved action franchise, the normally delightfully ornery Ford has revealed his tender side. He tearfully unveiled the first trailer last year at Disney’s D23 fan expo and got misty during a buoyant standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival world premiere.
“I’m about to cry now,” Ford, 80, wisecracks in classic Indy deadpan, sitting down to speak with his co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who plays Indy’s goddaughter, Helena Shaw. But then he gets serious.
“I cannot help to be moved by the incredible support these films have had. I feel grateful,” says Ford, who first breathed life into his iconic swashbuckler with “Raiders of the Lost Ark” four decades ago. “If I occasionally feel emotional, I’m not embarrassed by it.”
OK, now we’re crying. Here’s how the pair pulled off “Dial of Destiny” (in theaters Friday).
Harrison Ford ‘de-ages’ to play a younger Indiana Jones, but the star still shed his shirt in the here and now
Ford wanted Indiana Jones to be miserable, at first, for the final ride.
There is the crackerjack “Dial of Destiny” beginning in which Ford is digitally de-aged to look stunningly like his young swashbuckler self for a train battle with dreaded Nazi foes from movies past. Ford is still blown away by the AI-assisted visual effects technology that pulled countless Indiana Jones facial expressions from the Lucasfilm library to superimpose on his performance.
“So it’s my mouth and my present-day eyes, but they put it on my face from 40 years ago,” Ford says. “It’s just absolutely amazing. It really works.”
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After the romping, good-ole-days opener, “Dial of Destiny” cuts to Jones decades later in the 1960s, asleep on a chair in a seedy apartment, shirtless. (Ford’s idea, according to director James Mangold: “He told me, ‘I’ll do that in boxers.’ “)
Ford explains: “I wanted to see this character who has been so undaunted by these perilous situations he’s gotten himself into in the past, without those physical capacities. I wanted to see him dispirited, frankly, by the life he’s living.”
It’s the appearance of Waller-Bridge’s Shaw that sparks new life in the old body for one more ride. “She completely reinvigorates him for a new adventure,” Ford says.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge did stunts, whacked Harrison Ford’s belly with a wet fish
Waller-Bridge, 37, best known as the snarky, hard-drinking Londoner in TV’s “Fleabag,” shows she’s a master of screwball action comedy, right up there with Ford. The duo bicker through scrapes on tuk-tuks and in tombs. One might say Waller-Bridge was far better than a slap in the belly with a wet fish (meaning things could be worse), a colorful phrase Ford is fond of using. When Ford dropped the line during a filming break, Waller-Bridge was confused.
“Ms. Waller did not understand what I meant by a slap in the belly with a wet fish,” Ford says. “And we were sitting on a set that happened to have a lot of wet fish. So I was able to show you what a slap in the belly with a wet fish is like.”
Naturally, it was Ford’s once-again exposed torso that served as the testing ground.
“I got the biggest fish I could find and dragged it over,” Waller-Bridge says. “The props people even gave me a butcher’s vest.”
“And she whacked the (stuffing) out of me,” Ford says. “I loved it.”
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Waller-Bridge gamely carried out active stunts, like hanging onto a moving car for a chase scene. Feeling like a fish out of water in the stunt world only helped to play Helena.
“There was no ambition to be slick or good at it. That was such a relief for me,” she says. “My character is so impulsive that she’d jump without thinking about it. And that gave it a sort of freshness.”
Waller-Bridge even delivers a pivotal punch to Ford’s Jones, which she found terrifying. “He was bordering on 80 at the time. That’s not the kind of person you smack in the face.”
Harrison Ford roared back after a shoulder injury during the shoot
Ironically, Ford actually injured himself on the set when he threw a screen punch at villainous Nazi Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). “Literally, he just took a swing, and then went, ‘Hmm,’ Mangold says. “He had torn something. So we were down for a month.”
But Ford came back and was riding on horseback through fake New York City (played by Glasgow, Scotland) in a thrilling chase scene. The “1923” star even reared up on the horse dramatically. “We haven’t seen a New York police horse running down a subway platform before,” Ford says. “All in a day’s work for Indiana Jones.”
It all makes you wonder, can Ford actually quit Indiana Jones for good? The star will neither confirm nor deny that the fedora might make an appearance at home with Calista Flockhart, his wife of 13 years.
“You can’t know. Because you have no idea what I do in my house. If I want to dress in Indiana Jones clothes and do certain things with my wife, that’s not really anything to do with you. That’s not your business. That’s my house.”
