Ideally, an interview with Harrison Ford would go something like this: Ford, an avid private pilot, shoots down to College Park airport, scoops me in his single-engine Bonanza and taxis me back to his posh Tribeca loft.
There we talk women, politics and cinema over cabernet sauvignon and fine cheese. Meanwhile, Calista’s in the kitchen whipping us up some sandwiches.
Of course, this is The Diamondback, not GQ. So, along with the rest of the lowly college press, we interview the big names via the dreaded conference call. It’s a sort of over-the-phone press conference where, as a reporter, you’re happy if you sneak in one question and elated if you get to toss in a follow-up.
It’s usually a place for celebrities to act like tight-lipped politicians, answering questions in a most guarded and predictable fashion. But Diversions’ calls to megastar Harrison Ford and his co-star Paul Bettany, both promoting their new thriller Firewall, yielded an interesting view, albeit essentially one through a keyhole, into the lives of two of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men.
If you’ve never seen Ford on Letterman or Leno, you may be surprised to find that, at least in interviews, the screen legend is little like his outspoken on-screen persona. Even when cajoled to loosen up, he still seems to talk in the same low monotone whisper.
And characteristic of an airplane enthusiast, Ford began our chat on autopilot (understandable after a long day of doing the press rounds).
But after a few questions, the Firewall star was awakened when one of my Ivy League counterparts posed a multi-tiered whopper of a question, dripping with ersatz sophistication. The question – irrelevant; Ford’s response – priceless.
“We ll that’s a pretty sophisticated question, so I’ll try and give you a sophisticated answer,” he says with the sarcastic precision of any number of Han Solo lines.
From this moment on, the Raiders of the Lost Ark star seemed to open up.
“I’m not an action hero,” Ford affirms in response to one set of questions about his previous roles. “I’ve never actually done action films. I do thrillers that have action in them. Indiana Jones is as close as I’ve come to action … I think of that as kind of fantasy-comedy.”
In Firewall, Ford plays a security executive whose family is held hostage while he’s forced to pillage the global bank for which he pioneered a security system.
Anyone who has seen the trailer can see this is a pretty standard role for Ford in the same vain as his character in The Fugitive. Can audiences’ perceptions of the 63-year-old actor limit the types of roles he plays?
“Of course it can,” Ford says. “My persona is a dramatic construction of its own. Perception is in the eye of the beholder, and people perceive me in a way that is not an exact match for who I am … I’ve always tried to stir the pot a little with things like K-19.”
K-19: The Widowmaker, if you recall, was the 2002 film for which Ford got lambasted by critics chiefly for his Russian accent in playing a submarine captain. The actor seemingly faces such criticism on a daily basis.
“I was once in New York, and I was walking to my car,” Ford begins. “As I approached, I saw somebody begin to write a ticket. I said ‘Hey!’ from the middle of the street as I approached. He turned around and looked at me and said two words: ‘Mosquito Coast,’ and snapped it on the windshield. He didn’t like Mosquito Coast.”
With a filmography a fraction of the size of Ford’s, Bettany, who plays Firewall’s white collar blackmailer, has seen little thus far in his career other than critical and audience acclaim. His films, such as A Beautiful Mind and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, have taught the actor to embrace change.
“I’d never been in a thriller before, and I really wanted to work with Harrison Ford,” the Brit states sprightly. The zero-hour media assault seemed to have little effect on the 34-year-old actor’s spirits.
Despite having never played a traditional villain before, Bettany found the transition as simple as identifying with his character.
“I tried to look for what I had in common with the character, and what I had in common was that he wants $100 million,” he joked. “I wouldn’t mind $100 million. Obviously there are obstacles in the way … As far as keeping my home life separate, if you are playing a psychopath and you’re taking your work home with you, then you really shouldn’t be a father.”
Next on the docket, Bettany is set to play a villain very familiar to millions of readers across the world, The Da Vinci Code’s conflicted albino monk, Silas, a role Bettany says was impossible to turn down.
“If you are an actor and Ron Howard rings you up and asks you to play an assassin monk, and you say no, I think it’s probably time for you to go home,” Bettany says.
In playing classic villains, grappling with the hero is often nothing next to the actor grappling with cliche.
“You’re playing a villain in a thriller,” Bettany explains. “There are certain notes you have to hit because it’s a genre film. Sure, you hope for less mustache twiddling than there’s been before. If I sit there stroking a cat with a scar down my face I think people would be alienated, and that’s not what I want.”
And while Bettany’s previous films often featured some kind of take-home message or moral, don’t be fooled into thinking Firewall will.
“I think I was very clear about what the film is, which is entertainment,” he says. “A different film might want an audience to take different films home with them. In this one, certainly I want them to remember to pick up their purse on the way out.”
Contact reporter Pat Gavin at gavindbk@gmail.com.
