Yahoo Lifestyle Harrison Ford Says ‘S— Happens’ Over ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Flop, Joined the MCU With ‘No Script’ Because He Saw Actors ‘Having a Good Time’ in Marvel Movies
Harrison Ford is not too upset over “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” flopping at the box office. His fifth and final turn as the iconic archeologist opened in theaters in summer 2023 and lost Disney a reported $130 million after its global box office haul fell well below the $400 million mark. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Ford shrugged off the disappointment.
“Shit happens,” Ford said. “I was really the one who felt there was another story to tell. When [Indy] had suffered the consequences of the life that he had to live, I wanted one more chance to pick him up and shake the dust off his ass and stick him out there, bereft of some of his vigor, to see what happened. I’m still happy I made that movie.”
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With the “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” franchises now behind him, Ford next jumps to the biggest franchise in modern day Hollywood: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor is front and center opposite Anthony Mackie in “Captain America: Brave New World” as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (taking over the role from the late William Hurt), who is not only the U.S. president but also the Red Hulk.
Ford told WSJ Magazine that he accepted the Marvel role with “no script” presented to him, adding: “Why not? I saw enough Marvels to see actors that I admired having a good time.”
“I didn’t really know that at the end I would turn into the Red Hulk,” he then joked. “Well, it’s like life. You only get so far in the kit until the last page of the instructions is missing.”
Ford told Empire last December that working on a Marvel movie was “just another day at the office,” adding: “I tried to understand the ambition of the filmmakers, and to be useful to them. I just didn’t sit home at night and say, ‘Oh, what do I want to do when I turn into the Hulk?’ It didn’t seem to me to be a terribly difficult acting proposition.”
Speaking to Variety‘s Angelique Jackson on the Marvel press line at Comic-Con last year year, Ford wisecracked about the motion capture process required to turn him into the Red Hulk by saying: “What did it take? It took not caring. It took being an idiot for money, which I’ve done before.”
“I don’t mean to disparage it,” Ford added on a more serious note. “I’m just saying you have to do certain things that normally your mother would not want you to do — or your acting coach, if you had one. But it’s fun, and I enjoyed it. I had a great time.”
Unlike “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Captain America: Brave New World” could give Ford one of his biggest box office hits at 82 years old. But he’s feeling nostalgic for a time when movies made a far bigger impact on the public.
“What I miss, really, truthfully, is the connection [cinema had] to the culture overall,” Ford told WSJ Magazine. “Now we’re in people’s houses more than we’re in the commons. We work for niche audiences. Which doesn’t lessen the work. But we’re living in a different world, without the comfort of knowing that we’re all in this together. ”
When asked what a Marvel movie is then, Ford answered: “It’s a big niche.”
“Captain America: Brave New World” opens in theaters Feb. 14.
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