Harrison Ford Goes After Marvel Critics

Harrison Ford has become infamous for monosyllabic responses to interview questions but was very introspective when it came to his decision to star as Thunderbolt Ross in Captain America: Brave New World. When prompted by the interviewer about the disappearance of “stand-alone, smart movies for adults,” Ford said, “I feel bad that we don’t have these stories around us in the world.” But he noted that “I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s” and said it would be foolish for actors to “sit around regretting the change and don’t participate.”

Given how cranky Harrison Ford typically comes off, his open-minded response to the success of Marvel movies and his place in modern Hollywood is quite refreshing. He does regret that the nature of filmmaking and consuming media has changed, noting his fondness for when there was a “very close connection between movies and the culture,” a time when “there was a discernible zeitgeist, and the movies seemed to capture that.” 

However, in the next breath, Harrison Ford explained why actors shouldn’t get caught in the nostalgic trap of lamenting the past and blaming things like Marvel movies for transforming our shared culture. “You can’t sit around talking about how great it was in the past,” he said. “You’ve just got to make something better in the present.”

After Harrison Ford offered a thoughtful defense of Marvel, he tackled a claim made by some big names like Quentin Tarantino…specifically, that the movie star no longer exists because people think of comic book movie stars by their characters and not by their names. To this, Ford responded that the claim was “rubbish” and that “if movies need stars, they will find them.” He then admitted that “I’ve never f***ing understood being a movie star,” saying instead that he is an “actor…an assistant storyteller.”

While Harrison Ford didn’t elaborate on that last point, it sounds like he doesn’t think the debate over whether or not Marvel had destroyed the concept of movie stars is even worth having. Thanks to the success of franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Ford is objectively one of the biggest movie stars in the world, yet he rejects that label because he sees himself instead as simply someone who helps others to tell stories. Reading between the lines, he seemingly thinks that actors and audiences alike should reject the would-be discourse over this label and concentrate on creating entertaining stories.

All of which goes back to Harrison Ford’s point that actors shouldn’t turn their noses up at Marvel movies…sure, these films may be different from the ones that made Ford a household name, but they are different stories made for a different generation. Rather than retire and constantly grump about the good old days, he has decided to adapt and help younger filmmakers create tales suited for younger audiences.

In our estimation, this is the most graceful choice for the 82-year-old actor. Harrison Ford may never have sipped from the Holy Grail like his whip-cracking counterpart, but by constantly reinventing himself for each new generation of film lovers, he “chose wisely” and has found another way to essentially live forever, if only in the minds and hearts of his adoring fans.

Source: GQ