8 Fascinating Things We Learned From Harrison Ford's AMA

Hollywood legend Harrison Ford has spent the past four decades of his life churning out beloved movies. During that time, he’s played some of the most iconic characters in history and apparently, acquired more than his share of odd stories.

Today, he stopped by Reddit for the latest Ask Me Anything session, and during the chat, he got specific about Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Air Force One, Blade Runner and more. In the end, it probably wouldn’t go down as one of the all-time greats sessions, but it’s still pretty damn fascinating.

Here are some of the best highlights from the interview…

Harrison Ford would make another Blade Runner. He’s not ready to commit right now, of course, but if he was given the right script and Ridley Scott was involved again, he would be very, very interested.

Quote: I'm quite curious and excited about seeing a new script for Blade Runner if in fact the opportunity would exist to do another, if it's a good script I would be very anxious to work with Ridley Scott again, he's a very talented and passionate filmmaker. And I think it would be very interesting to revisit the character.

There’s one line Harrison Ford is asked to quote more than any other. You would probably think it’s one from Star Wars or Indiana Jones, but it’s actually one from Air Force One.

Quote: Get Off My Plane

Harrison Ford’s first connection to Star Wars was helping George Lucas audition other people. For some reason, he was hung up on the idea of being a carpenter at the time, but he took a job helping the director figure out who to cast for the other parts. Eventually, he was offered the role of Han, which he accepted.

Quote: I was quite surprised when I was offered the part. My principle job at the time was carpentry, I had been under contract as an actor at Columbia and Universal. I had a house at the time I wanted to remodel, a bit of the wreck of a house. I'd invest money in tools but wouldn't have money for materials, so I realized this was another way of putting food on the table.

Harrison Ford hasn’t seen Anchorman. Apparently he had a tremendous respect for Ferrell and company because of other projects he’d seen and is aware of the original film’s cultural impact; so, when he was asked to be apart of the sequel, he had to say yes.

Quote: I hadn't seen Anchorman, it was only one day's work, and I knew that it was very popular, and I admired the talents of the people involved, so I went to do it and had a great time, I enjoyed it. I still haven't seen it though.

He didn’t ad lib Han Solo’s famous "I know" line, but he did suggest it in rehearsals. This is one of those stories that people kinda sorta know but not completely. When Carrie Fisher says "I love you" in Star Wars, Ford responds by saying "I know". He’s long been given credit for word vomiting out the line like a badass, but apparently, it was less off the cuff and more a suggestion he gave during rehearsals that was immediately approved by Lucas and Fisher.

Quote: I thought it was more of a character line than what was written.

A bad case of dysentery led to one of Indiana Jones’ greatest moments. You know the scene in Indy in which he shoots the swordsman? Well, it was originally supposed to be a long, drawn out fight between the two of them, but thanks to the aforementioned dysentery, Harrison Ford brainstormed ways to get out of it.

Quote: And it was the last thing we were meant to shoot in Tunisia before we left to shoot in England. And the scene before this in the film included a whip fight against 5 bad guys that were trying to kidnap Marian, so I thought it was a bit redundant. I was puzzling how to get out of this 3 days of shooting, so when I got to set I proposed to Steven that we just shoot the son a bitch.

He hadn’t seen either of the Expendables before he was asked to be in the third movie. The actor had already made plans to shoot in Indonesia for the flick Years Of Living Dangerously when Sylvester Stallone and company asked if he would like to be in Expendables 3. They didn’t need him for very long. The shoot was in the same general area; so, he rented the original flick.

Quote: I hadn't seen the films but I looked one of them and i thought it was kind of funny, so I thought why not?

Harrison Ford has no interest in talking about the biggest Star Wars controversy of all-time. Hardcore Star Wars fans might spend hours endlessly dissecting whether Han or Greedo shot first, but the actor himself doesn’t really care and is done answering questions about it.

Quote: I don’t now and I don’t care.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.