CANNES, France — It’s been a long day. A visibly touched Harrison Ford stood on stage, struggling to control his emotions as the Cannes Film Festival audience applauded.
Harrison Ford was startled by the warmth of the audience and a clip reel that had been aired.
“They say that when you’re about to die, you see your life flash before your eyes,” he explained. “And I just saw my life flash before my eyes — a significant portion of my life, but not the entirety of my life.”
If last year’s Cannes Film Festival was characterized in part by a tribute to “Top Gun Maverick” star Tom Cruise, this year’s has been defined by HarrisonFord. It’s significantly more poignant this time. Ford, 80, is retiring Indiana Jones, saying farewell to the famed swashbuckling archaeologist more than 40 years after he first appeared, wearing a hat, whip, and suffering from a mild snake fear.
It’s been an emotional farewell tour, especially for Ford, who has shed a few tears. On Friday, Harrison Ford was asked by reporters, “Why give up Indy now?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, a sheepish expression on his face. “I need to sit down and take a break.” I enjoy working. And I like this persona. And I appreciate what it has brought into my life. That’s all I have to say.”
The fifth Indiana Jones film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” debuted Thursday night in Cannes, providing an emotional conclusion to the trilogy that began with 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” While Steven Spielberg directed the first three films from stories written by George Lucas, Ford’s final chapter is directed and co-written by James Mangold, the “Ford vs. Ferrari” director.
The evening, one of the most popular tickets at Cannes this year, also included an honorary Palme d’Or for Ford. The next day, Ford struggled to express his feelings about revealing his final performance as Indiana Jones.
“It was beyond words. “I can’t even tell you,” Ford admitted. “It’s just extraordinary to see a relic of your life as it passes.”
Harrison Ford, 80, is retiring from Indiana Jones.
Following the failure of 2008′s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” the possibility of a fifth film remained for years and underwent numerous revisions. Ford wanted to see a different, less youthful version of Jones. “Dial of Destiny” takes place in the 1960s, and Indiana is a retired professor whose long-ago feats no longer seem so remarkable in the age of space travel.
“I wanted to see the weight of life on his shoulders.” I wanted to portray him as needing reinvention and help. “I wanted him to have a relationship that wasn’t a flirty movie relationship,” said Harrison Ford, who co-stars with Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the film. “I wanted an equal relationship.”
Ford is happy with the film. He was notably complimentary of his co-stars and Mangold, saying they did more than “fill the shoes that Steven left for us.”
“Everything has come together to support me in my old age,” Ford joked.
The film begins with a lengthy sequence set in the final days of WWII. Harrison Ford has been de-aged to appear much younger in those sequences. Kathleen Kennedy, the CEO of Lucasfilm, quickly stated that the firm would not use an AI-created Ford in the future. Harrison Ford described hiring a de-aged version of himself as “skilled and assiduous” — and it didn’t make him envy.
Harrison Ford, 80, is retiring from Indiana Jones.
“I don’t look back and say, ‘I wish I could be that guy.'” “I’m very content with my age,” Harrison Ford added. He went on to say, with an obscenity, that it could be worse. “I could be dead.”
Ford isn’t giving up acting. He has two continuing TV programs (“Shrinking,” “1923”) and has stated that he will continue to work.
“My luck has been to work with incredibly talented people and find my way into this crowd of geniuses and not get my ass kicked out,” Ford explained. “And it appears that I still have a chance to work, which I desire.” That challenge is something I require in my life.”
Harrison Ford, like Indiana, will only leave with his hat. Ford has preserved one, but he values the experience of producing films more. “The stuff is great, but it’s not all about the stuff.”
And Harrison Ford is still capable of turning heads. One female reporter stated that the 80-year-old was “still hot” and questioned Ford, who goes shirtless briefly in the film, how he stayed in shape. Ford Harrison responded with fake pomposity after giggling and mentioning his enthusiastic cycling.
SOURCE – (AP)
