A little less than two yers ago, a phenomenon occured in the film industry that was destined to radically affect all those with whom it cam in contact. Star Wars not only changed the lives of the talented people involved in its creation but the audiences who literally stormed theaters throughout the world in order to meet "Luke Skywalker," "Princess Leia," "Han Solo," and the assorted space beings conceived by the brilliant mid of the movie's director-writer, George Lucas.

Since then, a whole new trend has taken place in virtually every form of entertainment - in films, television, and music - with space and all of its wonders being heralded and offered to an enthusiastic public. For Harrison Ford, however, his interest in "space" has a twofold meaning: for his career which was literally thrust by Star Wars into that rarified climate that superstars en joy; and, secondly, it's placed an even more intense emphasis on his private "space" as an individual.

Currently filming Star Wars II, Harrison will soon be seen in Force 10 from Navarone - the sequel to the blockbuster hit, Guns of Navarone; Hanover Street with Genevieve Bujold; Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now; and No Knife with Gene Wilder. In spite of his obviously busy schedule, Harrison recently managed to talk with Preview Editor, Aggie Anunciacion, about some of the changes he's experienced since Star Wars.

Q. Do you expect Star Wars II to have as great an impact on the public as Star Wars had?
A. I think that it has a greater chance to be even bigger since the characters are now established and we know all the technologies to generate the spectacular special effects. It would be clear that we would use the same people that we used with the first film but it doesn't necessarily follow sequel rules. It was always envisioned as a series of pictures.

Q. Will you have to go on another massive promotional tour as you and Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill did with the first?
A. I don't think promotion will be necessary after our first one. But that first tour was an opportunity to make the people see the difference between the actor and the character which I thought was important.

Q. What was your initial reaction to all the hoopla that revolved around you and the other people involved with Star Wars?
A. I saw it as an opportunity to a career that I never had before. I thought that I could either save this career by this opportunity or I could go away or I could become attached to this total Star Wars phenomenon. I knew it would be very difficult to break this attachment unless I worked and exercised the opportunity offered me.

Q. Yet, of all the actors, you seemed to have made the greater effort in creating a detachment from the film, not to be "locked in."
A. I think that was the right approach to the situation.

Q. But it's not so bad to be locked into the handsome, leading man role, is it?
A. It is if that is what people's impression of you is and that is the only thing that they hire you for.

Q. If you had to make the decision, would you rather be a successful and steadily working character actor as opposed to someone of "star" status? That can be a very fickle position . . .
A. I don't know. I don't examine other options. I have enough to do examining the work I'm doing. Rather tan thinking about the future or what the past could have brought under different Circumstances, I just never think about it that way.

Q. You don't dwell on regrets then ?
A. No . . . I've got enough to do now.

Q. What is it like for you now that your visibility has been magnified so greatly?
A. It's not terribly comfortable. The contact itself is not uncomfortable because people are usually very nice and very generous. But what I worry about and dislike is the fact that you become useless as an actor because people begin to know too much about you. It limits your efficiency. A person must leave a capacity to surprise, particularly in the industry. When you are supposed to do a character, it matters in making sure that the characterization is different than who you are as a person. You have to be a private person . . . and I am.

Q. You don't enjoy all the activities that go along with the success of a movie? All the interviews and promotional events?
A. I know and I understand all the obvious obligations to help promote a product that I have a stake in but it is always hard to do.

Q. Do you consider yourself an extremely shy person?
A. No, not shy so much as reticent. I don't like to talk about my personal life. I think that the most interesting thing about me is my work yet I don't like to talk that much about that because it speaks for itself. When it's good, it's good and when it's not everyone knows that, too!

Q. How do you feel when you see yourself onscreen?
A. Quite ill! (Laughs)

Q. Do you feel that it's a different person up there?
A. No, not at all. I feel that way because there is so much compromise in the process of making a film. A person has to do the best that he can under the circumstances, equipped with whatever talent he has. you just take on this responsibility and discharge it. It's hard to accept when you see it, though, because it's hard not to feel that you could have done better especially since it is there forever . . . forty feet high!

Q. Are you the type of person who offers suggestions or opinions in getting something done?
A. (Laughs) You mean, can I keep my mouth shut? No!

Q. You offer your own thoughts?
A. (Laughs) I think that's part of what I'm here to do and, also, I can be a reasonable person about it.

Q. How would you describe Harrison Ford, the person?
A. I don't know anything about the guy. He doesn't tell me any more than he tells anyone else!

Q. Would you like to know him personally?
A. I would like to meet him only onscreen . . . that is where I would like to know him. I hate telling stories about my "beginning" because certain elements take on a mythical quality only because they're told over and over again. Then, you end up meeting a Harrison Ford that you wouldn't even know if I met him on the street!

Q. But many actors and celebrities create myths simply by being in a business like acting.
A. But I never set out to be a myth I set out to be an actor, to do a job. My goal was to just make a living as an actor, to not have to do any other kind of work.

Q. Yet there was a time when you became a carpenter simply for survival, wasn't there?
A. Yes, I was making a good living but it wasn't necessarily for the profit. I liked the actual work, to design and build, and I liked the contact. But when it came to the amount of money I was spending, other people's money, that's where the responsibility was.

Q. You never had any training in carpentry, had you?
A. That's true. I more or less trained myself on the job. I read books and there are very simple logics to building.

Q. What made you go into acting?
A. Because I failed as a philosopher, first of all. I was three days away from college graduation when I decided I really did not want to graduate. I had to break the news to my parents and they had already made their reservations at the nearby hotel.

Q. So when you were a child, you never fantasized about being a movie star?
A. No, never! I always had fantasies of not having to work for a living and being an actor was the closest thing that I could imagine to that.

Q. If you ever tired of acting, would you resume being a carpenter?
A. Well, we could say that since I like to do it and I continue to do it than anything else.

Q. What else is recreation for you? Are you a "physical" person ?
A. Yeah, I always have been though I've never had much form for exercise. I like to work out physically but I don't exercise simply for the sake of it. I'm not competitive, not athletically competitive. (Laughs) I don't even like to compete with myself!

Q. There are many strenuous stunts in Force 10. How did you prepare for them ?
A. Well, the most strenuous things to me was the Yugoslavian food - that was really strenuous!

Q. I understand you did most of your own stunts.
A. Yes, I guess I did, but it wasn't so bad. It just looks like there was a lot more physical activity than there actually was. I think that happens with most films. Actually, one could get hurt more easily working as a carpenter than working as an actor!

Q. Why do you do your own stunts then ?
A. Because I feel that physical stunts are very much a part of the character and if you can do it in a way that expresses the character, so much the better. A stuntman, God bless him, does great work but then, up front, it will look like a fight between stunt men rather than a fight among actors.

Q. What have you enjoyed most about acting?
A. The opportunity to have a large range of experiences, a lot of freedom for luxury, and by that I don't mean "stuff." I get to travel, to do just about anything I want to do, to meet people. It's a wonderful job and a scary job sometimes.

Q. What do you mean by scarey?
A. It's scarey to wake up in the morning and to go someplace, knowing your lines, but you don't know what it's all about - you don't know what everybody else is going to do - that can be scarey.

Q. Do you have any ambitions to become involved in movie-making from the other end ?
A. No, not by a long shot. I don't want to direct movies, either. But I am knocking around some script ideas though they may never come into production. It may just be an exercise for me.

Q. What do you do when you get upset or frustrated. How do you release the tension?
A. (Joking) I kill cats. Little, soft furry ones. I flush them down the toilet and sometimes set them on fire.

Q. Wonderful. You and Steve Martin, right? No, really, now. . .
A. (Laughs) Well, really . . . No, actually I don't feel tension, that incredible tension. I just feel an obilgation to get a job done, whatever it may be.

Q. Do you always have such a steady temperament? No screaming in corners?
A. I don't know. Do I give that impression?

Q. The impression I get is that you are very good at protecting yourself, that you "guard" Harrison Ford very carefully.
A. I am protecting myself not because I think that there is anything to protect, my verbal exposure is done when I am on the screen. There are just some things in my private life that I don't want to talk about - like other people whom I've worked with and whether I liked them or not. But I did like working with Robert Shaw on Force 10. He was one of a kind. It was a tough job and it was tough for both of us. We got to know each other quite well and it was quite a shock, his death. I liked him - it was well worth the experience.

Q. What do you want people to remember about you? What do you want to leave behind, to remain "immortal "?
A. (Laughs) I don't want to leave anything immortal! I don't think of myself as being a legacy to my culture - the great moments in cinematic gold. I want to be good as a craftsman - that's all. I don't take any of it personally.

Q. Harrison, do your emotions ever get the better of you on the job?
A. (Laughs) My emotions always get the better of me but for reasons that I hope will prevail! I just don't agree that people should invest in me that much. I mean, I am pleased that people enjoy my work but I become a little uncomfortable when I realize what function I am performing in their eyes.

Q. Such as in their fantasies or in the image they have of you?
A. Yes. It doesn't frighten me - I'm just aware of it. People have shown up at my house, gotten my phone number.

Q. How do you handle that?
A. I just say: "Hey, you can't do this! Thank you for your interest." I don't always say that though because with some people you just have to say; "Get the hell out of here!" What bothers me is that a lot of people have a need for this kind think they do less and less; at least, I would hope so.

Q. But how does the public maintain its interest in a person who is hidden all the time?
A. Through his work - that's all. If you're not working, then the public has every right to forget about you. If I had no film to sell - a film that will be coming out soon - I would not be here. I would feel that I had nothing to talk about. I would not just like to remind people that I'm alive because I don't think they really care. They want to see movies. I want to give them movies - good movies - that's all.

Q. So the only way that you want to touch people is through the role you portray onscreen.
A. Yes. My thoughts are very clear of what my public wants from me.

Q. And that is?
A. To be an actor, period.

Q. Okay, you have several movies to be released soon and you're working on Star Wars II. After that sequel, what do you have planned?
A. (Laughs) I haven't a clue!

By: Aggie Anunciacion
Preview Editor
1978