Does anyone else think that Harrison Ford is more of a movie star than an actor? When I mean movie star I mean to compare him to John Wayne (who I think is great), a recognizable presence, who could play a roll well, but limited range.
shareI think he's a terrible actor, and anything 'good' that he is in is good in spite of his presence. I'm also not sure why he seems to have so much clout and privilege in the industry. I think Indiana Jones could have been as big as James Bond if the producers cast someone new in the role and maintained a floating timeline like the Bond series has. Instead the studios seem to prefer waiting decades for him to get convinced to make another sequel. He's almost 80 now. He can't possibly play this role anymore.
shareI don't know if audiences will put up with another Indie. Maybe they would but I personally wouldn't bother with it in most likeliness. Bond seems to be the only series that got away with doing that well. I guess the Jack Ryan series didn't do too bad but it wasn't good either. I can't think of any others.
shareThe series has untapped potential and I think it is way bigger than Harrison Ford ever was. I don't quite understand why it's such a taboo to re-cast a role. It's like saying that whoever played Hamlet for the first time should have a monopoly on that role for eternity. Imagine if people were actually that irrational.
shareThat´s not a good analogy. Hamlet is a character in a play that has been adapted countless times over centuries. Not to mention, I bet, you would have to google, the first person that played Hamlet, let alone name any actor that has played him off the top of your head. Indy is a cinematic icon that hasn´t been recast in decades.
shareLaurence Olivier
David Tennant
Benedict Cumberbatch
Kenneth Branagh
Mel Gibson
Richard Burton
Good for you but I don´t believe you are the person I was replying to and if you knew that many off the top of your head, I would say, you are in a small minority compared to the general population. Even people who aren´t fans of Indy basically know who Harrison is. I highly doubt such people are as knowledgeable about who has played Hamlet.
shareI agree. But it’s interesting how viewers will accept new actors in a role on stage but reject this in film or on tv (with a few notable exceptions).
Spielberg and Lucas did mess around with having other actors play the character at various stages in his life, via the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. (Btw I really enjoyed that series, or most of it.)
I like Brit costume drama, esp adaptations of classic novels by authors like Austen, Dickens, the Brontes. The Brits (esp the BBC) like to revisit their classics over and over again. (e.g. check out the page on imdb for Charlotte Bronte — how many Jane Eyre’s are there?) So I guess unlike most people, I welcome portrayals by different actors.
It just drives me crazy when people refer to one (recent) actor’s portrayal in a Brit historical/costume drama as the original or the definitive one. That’s really just not possible in that particular genre.
P.S. I hated Crystal Skulls. 😜
On TV, there’s Doctor Who
shareTrue, but a changing identity was also part of the Doctor Who lore. I suppose even if it weren't for that it would still have done well. I think the British put up with a lot of things in their entertainment that most American fans wouldn't. Not to be a jerk about it but the production quality of a lot of British shows is on the "poor" side of what Americans are accustom to.
shareI agree. John Wayne was always the same character in every film. The same is true of Ford, with maybe a slightly greater degree of variation. Harrison Ford is always Harrison Ford, but sometimes he is Quiet Ford, or Arrogant Ford or Happy Ford, etc. Another actor this is true of is Clint Eastwood. These actors never disappear into their roles. They always just play different versions of themselves.
shareJOHN WAYNE FAMOUSLY SAID..."In my acting, I have to identify with something in the character. The big tough boy on the side of right - that's me. Simple themes. Same me from the nuances. All I do is sell sincerity and I've been selling the hell out of that ever since I started."🤠
shareI think he's in the mold of a Gary Cooper or Henry Fonda. None of them "become the role", but instead work it the other way. They bring the character into themselves. It works, and who's to say which style is superior, really.
shareI almost was going to object over Henry Fonda but I suspect you are right. He's been in so many good and varied films I tend to think of him as a consummate thespian, and yet his voice and appearance are so recognizable, he does sort of make the character resemble him rather than the other way around. And he always plays very serious minded people.
shareAppreciate the thoughts.
When you say serious minded it reminds me of how Preston Sturges realized he could have fun with that aspect of him in The Lady Eve. :)
Say, if you like movie star biographies, I rather liked The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda by Devin McKinney.
Ford had something of a recognizable prescence when he was younger, but his charisma has gradually diminished over the years. In the last Indiana Jones movie he still somewhat had it, but when he played Han Solo again he was a shadow of his former self
shareNah, his dramatic roles in Witness, Mosquito Coast, Working Girl etc. shows he’s actually a very good actor. He just doesn’t pick enough challenging roles since the 80s.
shareJust one of my opinions about what a 'good actor' is. Someone who makes it look so effortless that they don't seem to be acting, they just ARE.
That to me is Harrison Ford. He just seems to inhabit the life of the character. He makes it look so easy that he doesn't get the credit for acting.
All right you got me with Mosquito Coast (which also turns out to be Ford's favorite of his own films). But with a career as long as his you would think he would have more stand-out performances. Now don't get me wrong he makes entertaining movies that I love watching, but I feel that he is always playing a version of himself and has never really stretched when taking roles.
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So Rick Deckard is the same as Han Solo?
shareI don´t think so. He is popular because he is a cinematic icon for playing Han Solo and Indy. I think that is a big reason people have trouble seeing him act outside those roles. He was brilliant in Regarding Henry for example and Witness and absolutely acted nothing like he did in his more famous roles.
shareNonsense. If he was just a movie star he'd be playing Solo/Jones in ever single thing he's cast in. He's nothing of the sort. He's not a great actor, but he's a good one. His movie star paycheck movies cloud his legacy though, for sure. I would also argue it's more important for an actor to know the limits of their range than to attempt to exceed them. I consider him to be the perfect movie star. You put his name on the poster, you're going to put asses in chairs. And he's gonna give you something that's not too unlike what you're used to, so you're never gonna walk out of the theater wondering what the hell you just watched. But I have definitely walked away saying.... "that was not my favorite Harrison Ford movie." So he don't always play it safe.
shareI agree, he's a good actor. It does help that he's good-looking and has charisma, but there are lots of those people who make terrible movies. Is his range infinite? No. He's not Tom Hanks, who can play anyone from a virtuous alpha male, to a gangster, to a person with severe mental disability. Harrison Ford, to me, plays characters that are generally similar to Han Solo in each of his movies, though not the exact same character. But he allows his characters to be flawed, and his movies are pretty consistently enjoyable.
shareTo a degree I agree with you. He is a movie star and he knows his limits for the most part. But for someone who has been a star in the movie business for nearly five decades, I was expecting a bigger range. He mostly skates by on charm and charisma, but in the long run audiences grow tired of it and want to see something different. If you look at his recent box-office sales it is a far-cry from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He is not a guarantee to open up a movie (in fact Extraordinary Measures, Paranoia, Ender's Game, Crossing 0ver, Morning Glory, and Call of the Wild all bomb or greatly underperformed). He is getting desperate enough where he is taking up Indiana Jones again (a role, which he has stated he at times hates). He has in my opinion only gave three very good performances (The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, and the Mosquito Coast). I do think he can be a good actor, but for the most part he just gives what is expected.
share"If you look at his recent box-office sales it is a far-cry from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. "
That´s because he is old. Younger audiences don´t know him as well as older folk and that will be reflected in the box office. Not to mention, his film choices haven´t exactly been guaranteed box office blockbusters. I wouldn´t call it desperate either. He has enough money to retire many times over. I´d love a link to where he has said he "hates being Indy", because that sounds like a lie to me.
Yeah, you're right I lied about the Indiana Jones thing. Are you kidding type any of the keywords into google and you will have your articles.
shareI typed in "harrison ford hates being indiana jones" and couldn´t find anything. Lie might be a bit harsh but it does sound like an unsubstantiated rumor. I did however find that he disliked playing Han Solo.
shareHe despises and has said how he does not care to play Han Solo. I have read that he is tired of playing Indiana Jones. I suspect that is because he is predominantly recognized and only asked question about Jones and Solo despite having a career spanning over half a century.
shareI still don´t buy it, he was the one who pushed for an Indy 4 for years while Spielberg didn´t want to.
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