Harrison Ford, the superstar who battled evil in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies and survived a thousand-foot fall in The Fugitive, has been felled by the flu. He sneezes, he blows his nose and then apologizes and blows his nose again. He's grown a mustache and doesn't look like Harrison Ford. Until he looks you in the eye and there it is: Harrison Ford, heart-throb. Harrison Ford, moral force.

The fifty-three-year-old actor is not only dealing with the sniffles but also making the transition from his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Manhattan to film the police thriller Devil's Own with Brad Pitt. His wife of thirteen years, E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison, and their two young children, Malcolm, eight, and Georgia, five, have made the temporary move with him. Over an Italian lunch, Ford discusses his private and public roles and the importance of family.

HF: Would it be naughty of us to have red wine?
LHJ: Nonsense. It would be good for your cold. How are you doing in New York?
HF: I hate it [laughs]. The kids are flourishing. They love the park. But everything I want to do is back in Wyoming. Everything I have to do is here.

LHJ: What you have to do - your career - has made you quite famous. How do you explain it to your kids? HF: I don't know how to explain it to them. They just think it's weird. And I think they resent it because it interferes with their lives.

LHJ: If you are together and someone approaches for an autograph, how do the kids respond to that?
HF: They're less able to forgive the interruption. I know that these people are the reason I am able to enjoy the life I'm giving to the kids. I also understand that it's easier to sign the autograph than it is to say, "Can't you see I'm with my family?" But it's bizarre. You're never able to forget who you are to them.

LHJ: Is New York City a good place to help forget?
HF: It's good and bad. The New York version is [he leans back, making his voice deep], "Hey, H-Man!" And that's it, and then they're on to something else.

LHJ: You always seem to play men who are trying to do good.
HF: The struggle to do the right thing, whatever the circumstances, is really the only interesting part.

LHJ: Were you taught right from wrong as a child?
HF: I had a basic Midwestern upbringing. I came from a home where I felt supported and encouraged. I had a pretty normal childhood. It was only in the outside world that I felt uncomfortable.

LHJ: When did that start?
HF: High school. I noticed that the people around me didn't seem to have the same point of view as I did. I didn't feel comfortable. I wasn't particularly popular or a good student. I scraped by, and I did the same thing in college and almost got away with it until the last year [when he flunked out].

Led: What finally focused you?
HF: Real resistance in Hollywood. People saying to me, "You're never going to make it in this business." That enraged me. So I resolved to stay.

LHJ: What do you find most engaging about acting?
HF: The telling of stories. Also, there's no sense of community in our lives anymore. When you go into a dark room with people and feel the same thing they do, you are rekindling your common humanity. You feel a sense of commonality.

LHJ: Isn't that what people experience in church?
HF: It is, but they don't go anymore.

LHJ: Do you take your children?
HF: Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me [squirming]? I've never felt comfortable with organized activities of any kind. But I believe it's very important to teach children responsibility and morality. That's all that religion is about. So it doesn't matter how the job gets done.

LHJ: Are you a strict parent?
HF: Maybe not strict, but I'm committed to giving the same message all the time. I really believe that kids want discipline. It's also my disposition to be rigorous. I've gone through this one more time than Melissa has. [Ford and his first wife, Mary, have two grown sons: Benjamin, twenty- eight, a chef, and Willard, twenty-six, a teacher.] I didn't do all that well the first time, except that my kids are terrific human beings, which I credit my dear ex-wife for.

LHJ: Your circumstances have also changed professionally. Your films have grossed over two billion dollars domestically, making you one of the biggest box-office stars in history. But how did you stick it out for your first thirteen years in Hollywood when you became a carpenter to put food on the table?
HF: The one thing I understood coming in was that tenacity was all. Also, I had limited ambition. I just wanted to make a living as an actor, without having to do something else to support my family.

LHJ: Let's talk about your latest role, in Sabrina. In the original, Audrey Hepburn starred as the chauffeur's daughter opposite Humphrey Bogart as Linus, the stuffy businessman who falls in love with her. This one stars you and Julia Ormond. How did you decide to remake a movie that many people thought was perfect?
HF: I have an instinct for audience pleasing films. And I'm in the lucky position of being able to do things that interest me.

LHJ: It's a great love story. What is the one thing you have come to understand about love? HF: Opposites attract. [Long silence as he looks at the floor.] I don't know what to say about love in life, but I'll tell you about love in movies. It's all about tension. You keep the potential lovers apart as long as you can, because the minute it's consummated, the story is over. That's why making love on film is not very interesting.

LHJ: Is there a lot of tension in Sabrina?
HF: Yes. It's one of the things Sydney [director Sydney Pollack] does so well. I think it was Barbra Streisand who called him 'the king of foreplay' not in life [laughs], in the movies. The Movie - King of Foreplay.

LHJ: In real life, it is consummated, you get married and . . . ?
HF: You live happily ever after. [He smiles his trademark bemused lop-sided smile.]

LHJ: It seems like it's a challenge for couples to stay together, especially in Hollywood. Do you and your wife have some clear plan on how to make a good marriage?
HF: No, we just have a commitment to each other and a history.

LHJ: Your wife has said that hers is a blessed and happy life. And yours?
HF: I'm blessed with a wife who has a blessed and happy life. And I have great kids and incredible freedom both away from and in my work.

LHJ: One last question. About that mustache . . .
HF: I got sick of looking at my face, so I didn't want to have to look at it shaving. I'm trying to persuade the people on the next film that it's good for the part. They aren't persuaded.

By Barbara Lazear Ascher
Ladies' Home Journal
1996