It’s impressive enough that Harrison Ford decided to take on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in any capacity, but the octogenarian isn’t letting his age get in the way of an authentic performance. In fact, the 80-year-old actor is embracing it, going so far as to tell the film’s stunt team to “leave [him] the fuck alone,” as he recalled in a new interview with Esquire.
The scene in question involves Indy traversing the streets of 1969 New York City on horseback, through a crowded parade celebrating the moon landing. When the cameras cut, Ford felt a few pairs of hands spotting him from behind as he was about to get off the horse.
“I thought, ‘What the fuck?’ Like I was being attacked by gropers. I look down and there’s three stunt guys there making sure I didn’t fall off the stirrup,” Ford said. “They said, ‘Oh, we were just afraid because we thought, you know, and bah bah bah bah.’ And I said, ‘Leave me the fuck alone…Leave me alone, I’m an old man getting off a horse and I want it to look like that!”’
We can’t blame the stunt guys for spotting Ford, considering he halted production on Dial of Destiny when he suffered a shoulder injury on set back in 2021. He knows he’s a potential liability, too: “I’m also known for shutting movies down because I get hurt, which is not something you want to be known for,” he went on. “But hey, shit happens.”
But Ford also found some lower-stakes ways to make his age evident — like a shirtless shot. “Waking up in my underwear with the empty glass in my hand was my idea,” he added, referring to an early scene where Indy’s meant to look a little worse for wear. “I wanted to see Indiana Jones at a nadir point and rebuild him from the ground up.”
We’ll see Indiana Jones get back on his feet again when Dial of Destiny hits theaters June 30th. Directed by James Mangold, it also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Antonio Banderas, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Oliver Richters, and Ethann Isidore.
