Harrison Ford's fifth and final outing as the whip-wielding Indie is almost upon us, and the Oscar-winning actor is dishing about exactly how he wanted the iconic character to ride off into the sunset. Turns out the 80-year-old action star was keen to act his age in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, opening in theaters on June 30: "I'm an old man getting off a horse and I want it to look like that!"
Ford revealed in a new interview with Esquire that on the set of Indiana Jones 5, directed by Logan helmer James Mangold, not everyone was as giddy as he was about flaunting Indie's advanced age. In one set piece, Indie can be seen riding a horse through a ticker-tape parade along the streets of New York City. The scene is a celebration of the moon landing, and it's set in 1969. Indie was born in 1899, so the character would have been about 70 years old at that point. No spring chicken. Towards the end of the scene, Ford felt a few stunt workers spotting his dismount and told them to... well, see for yourself:
"I thought, 'What the f***?'" he told the outlet. "Like I was being attacked by gropers. I look down and there's three stunt guys there making sure I didn't fall off the stirrup. They said, 'Oh, we were just afraid because we thought, you know, and bah bah bah bah.' And I said, 'Leave me the f*** alone... Leave me alone, I'm an old man getting off a horse and I want it to look like that!'"
While he may have intended for Indie's age to show, that's not the impression one journalist got from Ford's shirtless scene in the movie. After its premiere at Cannes, a reporter told Ford, "Look, I think you're still very hot." The remark prompted a characteristically sarcastic response from Ford, and the hilarious exchange quickly went viral.
As it happens, it was Ford who made the call to go shirtless early on in the film: "Waking up in my underwear with the empty glass in my hand was my idea."
But it's not all stripping down and playing cowboy for the 80-year-old screen legend. While he'll certainly do some of that in the upcoming second season of 1923, getting back in the saddle is no picnic. When he pulled a muscle filming a fight scene with Dial of Destiny co-star Mads Mikkelsen, the production had to shut down for two weeks — an experience Ford indicates was a bit embarrassing.
"Yeah, well, I'm also known for shutting movies down because I get hurt, which is not something you want to be known for," Ford said. "But hey, s*** happens."
Harrison Ford, anti-ageism activist. Love to see it.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premieres only in theaters on June 30.
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