See Harrison Ford Reading Blade Runner Notes For His 2021 Oscar Speech
Harrison Ford pulled a great gag at this year's Oscars.
This article is more than 2 years old
Harrison Ford is one of the most well-known actors in Hollywood. And honestly, at this point, why wouldn’t he be? Not only did he bring the lovable smuggler Han Solo to life in the Star Wars saga, but he has also portrayed Indiana Jones in the wildly popular adventure franchise of the same name and Rick Deckard in Blade Runner and its sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Of course, his filmography is much more extensive than that, too extensive to include all of his acting credits here. And besides, those three roles are arguably his biggest. Strangely enough, his involvement in the latter franchise actually played a part in his Oscars speech.
You can check out Harrison Ford reading Blade Runner editing notes in the clip below:
Among the notes Harrison Ford read were jabs at Blade Runner‘s “choppy” opening and questions about whether or not the cast was on drugs during key moments in the film. You can check them out here:
As you can see, test audiences had quite a few issues with Blade Runner when it first screened back in the ’80s. It is honestly a bit surprising that such a highly-regarded film initially had such a rough time resonating with viewers. The film helped cement Harrison Ford as one of the sci-fi genre’s biggest stars and greatest assets, something that its belated sequel only reinforced.
It was definitely an unexpected move for Harrison Ford to bust out old Blade Runner editing notes, but it is still pretty cool – and oddly encouraging – to realize that one of the actor’s most popular movies wasn’t always the masterpiece it is today. So take heart, aspiring creatives. Just because your first draft isn’t spectacular does not mean that you can’t get it to a point where it is. Heck, remember when Carrie Fisher marked up the entire first page of the first Star Wars script? That alone should tell you that creative projects are far more collaborative than most realize.
Despite rumors that Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill would both be returning to the Star Wars franchise in some capacity, that does not look to be the case. And that is honestly just fine. Harrison Ford is not exactly hurting for work, and neither is Hamill. Most recently, Ford starred in the 2020 film The Call of the Wild, which was not, by any means, a great movie, but it was definitely a fun one. He also voiced Rooster in the 2019 animated film The Secret Life of Pets 2. We do not know much about what he is up to post-Call of the Wild, but if he is going to be revealing old, scathing notes for his best movies, then we are here for it. It is always fun to get behind-the-scenes information like that.
Did Harrison Ford nail his intro speech or were audiences hoping for something more lively and entertaining? Frankly, I think that while it was strange, it definitely added new context to a movie we thought we knew inside and out.
