The 82-year-old “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” actor explained what keeps him working in the business after all these years.
“Oh man, I get out of it essential human contact,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Oct. 10.
“I get to imagine with people that have great skill and experience… It’s fun to work with these people,” added the “Shrinking” star, who has five children and is married to actress Calista Flockhart.
Ford began his acting career in 1963. He currently stars in Bill Lawrence’s Apple TV+ comedy series alongside Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Christa Miller. The show returns for Season 2 on Wednesday.
While Ford rarely acts in comedy projects, especially TV shows, he’s embraced his role in “Shrinking” as senior therapist Dr. Paul Rhoades.
“I always enjoyed humor. I loved jokes. I loved the construction of jokes,” he told Vanity Fair. “My father was a joke teller. The wordsmithing and the ideas that lay behind a joke have always interested me.”
“When I was thinking about becoming an actor, I was ambitious for both kinds of work — serious drama and comedy,” the Hollywood legend recalled. “I found myself doing both and not really distinguishing much between them. I think I think with the same actor’s head about a joke as I do about a serious or emotional scene.”
Ford will also star in the 2025 Marvel movie “Captain America: Brave New World” as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross / Red Hulk. He recently told GQ magazine that it would be “silly” to turn down a role in the massively popular superhero film franchise.
“I mean, this is the Marvel universe and I’m just there on a weekend pass. I’m a sailor new to this town,” said Ford.
He continued, “I understand the appeal of other kinds of films besides the kind we made in the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t have anything general to say about it. It’s the condition our condition is in, and things change and morph and go on. We’re silly if we sit around regretting the change and don’t participate. I’m participating in a new part of the business that, for me at least, I think is really producing some good experiences for an audience. I enjoy that.”
Ford also said that he chooses projects at this point in his career based on “the quality of writing.”
“It doesn’t matter what the genre is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s on television or in movies. It’s the writing, it’s the story, it’s the character, it’s the emotional experience for an audience or for myself,” he explained. “It’s people that I have some feeling that I want to work with, or it’s a quality opportunity.”
