Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford (born 13 July 1942) is an American actor who is best known for his work in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series of films. A leading man since the 1970s, he is the recipient of many accolades, including the AFI Life Achievement Award (2000), the Cecil B. DeMille Award (2002), an Honorary César (2010) and an Honorary Palme d'Or (2023).
Quotes
[edit]- Speaking about his Irish/Jewish/Russian ancestors, Harrison Ford said that he is “Irish as a person but I feel Jewish as an actor.”
- The simplest answer is probably the most truthful: After two years of sitting on my ass during COVID, and waiting quite a few years for Indiana Jones to start, I had not done as much work as I wanted to and I wanted to do different things. So [Shrinking] came along, and then, very quickly after that, 1923 came along. I took the job without a script on both of them, on faith that the people who created the projects were going to deliver me a good script. I really didn’t realize how much work 1923 was going to be, and I absolutely feel it’s worth it. I’m excited to do another season of both.
- Harrison Ford on his interview at The Holywood Reporter (February 8, 2023)
Barbara Walters interview (March 1997)
[edit]- ABC Special Report: Barbra Walters Interview (March 24, 1997)
- I just don't understand the need to name something "the best" or more better than something else. Saying one thing is better than another, one performance is better than another performance — there can't be a contest in this area. I don't understand that.
- I wouldn't be doing this interview if I didn't like you.
- I am in show business. I don't, for a minute, ever forget that this is a business that I'm involved in, and it plays by business' rules.
- I don't think I have something that's pronounceable as a philosophy. ... When it was fashionable to say, "May the Force be with you," I always said, "Force yourself." ... I'll say again then, "The Force is within you. Force yourself."
"Harrison Ford Has Stories to Tell", Esquire (May 2023)
[edit]- "Harrison Ford Has Stories to Tell", Esquire (May 31, 2023)
- Flying is the tension between freedom and responsibility. The obligation on every flight is to ensure the safety of the people aboard. It's serious. And I continually have to meet the standards. And: it's the third dimension! We're living the two dimensional life here on the ground. When you get up there and you see the third dimension - that's what's so exciting about these kids, the Young Eagles. You fly 'em over their house and it's the first time they really know where they live.
- It is a bit of a shock to discover that there are things that a writer can bring to a script that you recognize as a shadow of your own experience. You don’t necessarily actively draw on some specific thing that happened to you—but it’s in the bank, and you want to spend it.
- I can tell you this: If I’d been less successful, I’d probably be a better parent.
- Which I still get shit about from my wife, like I don’t take mental health seriously. I do take mental health seriously. I was trying to say, as I explained to her: It’s that I accommodate all of the flaws that people go to psychiatrists to accommodate, because I accept my flaws. I accept my flaws and my failures—I don’t accept them, I own them. And certainly the more constant gardener is the better parent, and I’ve been out of town, up my own ass, for most of my life.
- About the Hollywood Reporter interview and its headline ‘I know who the fuck I am.’
Guardian interview (October 2025)
[edit]- "Harrison Ford says Trump’s assault on climate policy 'scares the shit out of me'", The Guardian (October 31, 2025).
- [Donald Trump] doesn’t have any policies, he has whims. It scares the shit out of me. The ignorance, the hubris, the lies, the perfidy. [Trump] knows better, but he’s an instrument of the status quo and he’s making money, hand over fist, while the world goes to hell in a handbasket.
- [The President dislikes wind turbines because] he has just not seen a gold one.
- [On climate change] I knew it was coming, I have been preaching this stuff for 30 years. [...] Everything we've said about climate change has come true. Why is that not sufficient that it alarms people that they change behaviors? Because of the entrenched status quo.
- He's losing ground because everything he says is a lie [...] I'm confident we can mitigate against [climate change], that we can buy time to change behaviors, to create new technologies, to concentrate more fully on implementation of those policies.
But we have to develop the political will and intellectual sophistication to realize that we human beings are capable of change. We are incredibly adaptive, we are incredibly inventive. If we concentrate on a problem we can fix it most times. - We are teetering on the edge. [...] Indigenous people are the stewards of much of the remaining standing forests and contain the hope that these precious places can be preserved. The science has proved the value in their preservation but that does not keep them from encroachment, and the protection they are granted is tenuous in some of the countries these assets exist in.
Life Achievement Award Acceptance Speech | 32nd Annual Actor Awards (March 2026)
[edit]- I'm in a room of actors, many of whom are here because they've been nominated to receive a prize for their amazing work. While I'm here to receive a prize for being alive. That said, it is a little weird to be getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the half-point of my career.
- I found a calling. A life in storytelling. An identity in pretending to be other people.
- Ours is a tough business to get into. In my case, it's been a tough business to get out of, thank God.
- Sometimes, we make entertainment. Sometimes, we make art. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we make 'em both at the same time. And if we're really fortunate, we also get to make a living doing it.
- [Thank] you to SAG-AFTRA for honoring me with this prize; this is very encouraging.
