<span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="15">H</span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="-15">arrison Ford's reputation undoubtedly precedes him – not only as one of the leading actors of his generation, having portrayed movie icons such as </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic" data-atex-track="-15"><em>Star Wars' </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="-15">Han Solo, </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic" data-atex-track="-15"><em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="-15">'s Indiana Jones and, of course, </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic" data-atex-track="-15"><em>Blade Runner</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="-15">'s Rick Deckard – but also as a notoriously media-shy individual who sees the need to communicate with his public (or "customers" as he regularly refers to them) as a most unwelcome side product of his job.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="15">The star famously admitted to the BBC he is "just rude" and for years refused to answer questions about probably his most celebrated role as Han Solo. He even gave a wry nod to his own acerbic reputation with a staged walk out on the </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic" data-atex-track="15"><em>Jimmy Kimmel Live </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="15">show, when an audience member dressed as Chewbacca threw him a </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic" data-atex-track="15"><em>Star Wars </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-track="15">question (in his native Wookie language, naturally) during a Q&A.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">It was with some relief then, that the Ford we sat down with in a hotel room in Berlin recently to discuss the forthcoming </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner 2049</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="Italic"><em> </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">film, in which he reprises his role as Deckard, was quite the opposite of the daunting media-phobe we had feared. In fact, he seemed to have sparked up a comedy double act with his co-star Ryan Gosling over the course of shooting, and the gags came thick and fast from the outset.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">What is the relationship between the two characters? "I had his job once. I was good at it," Ford quips, mimicking his own line from the film's trailer – it's clear we may not get too many serious responses here.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">I divert my attention to his co-star Gosling, and ask about his own memories of the 1982 original movie: "I saw it when I was about 12, about 10 years or so after it came out. I really had no idea of its significance at the time," he reveals, before his partner-in-mirth cuts him dead.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">"He rented it for a dollar. He got four movies for a dollar. It was a summer special," Ford deadpans.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">Gosling confirms the story, and Ford finally lets him talk a little more about his response. "It was unlike anything I'd experienced before," he says. "It was transportive, very complicated emotionally. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel. It felt very grounded and possible, but at the same time it felt like this romantic nightmare. There were so many elements to it and when it was over it took me a while to realise how important it was and how much it had influenced a whole generation."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">The sheer force of Ford's personality is already governing the direction of our meeting, and its clear that his presence loomed large over the set too. "We were all very concerned about what Harrison would think and how he would like what we were doing," says Gosling. "Every day Jared [Leto, who plays Niander Wallace in the film] and me were like, 'Is Harrison going to like this?' He was like our bulls*** meter, and a great one at that. He really helped us navigate our course and he was there to ask, if we ever needed to."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">"They never asked me," Ford retorts.</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">Whether the new generation of </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">stars consulted Ford or not, it sounds like the time they spent on set was a riot, particularly given the fact that the film is such a bleak affair. The two engage in a protracted faux-argument about who had the bigger trailer, before Gosling reveals how he dealt with the intimidating prospect of appearing in an iconic movie alongside one of his heroes. "He does a lot of his off-camera in UGG boots with a cashmere wrap; that kind of takes away the intimidation," he reveals. "I think he did it for me more than his own comfort, although I found it quite uncomfortable too."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">Ford, not to be outdone, has to have the last word and reveals his own special technique for making his starstruck co-star feel at ease: "I don't think the crew was totally comfortable with the nudity, but for you I knew it would be a distraction."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">With the conversation clearly taking another turn for the surreal, I try to steer Ford back to the movie – how was it returning to </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner </em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">second time around after a massive 35-year gap? "There was less rain, less strain, less night-time work, and I had 35 years to think about it," he says. "It was fun. It really was. Any doubts I had about doing it were swiftly assuaged by the script we had. That's what we tried to preserve – the audience potential not to hear about [the story] from me as a hawker of my wares, or from you as a journalist, but to have the opportunity to, in context, discover things. I like an audience to experience the story. My most critical script note in the margin is 'talk story', talking about the story … giving the audience the opportunity to experience the story."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">The original movie is, of course, a cult classic. Its fame, however, has largely come through home video, DVD and a slow-burning loyal fan base. Its original theatre release drew in a modest US$33.8 million (Dh124.1m) at the global box office, and was viewed by many at the time as a failure. Ford is quite clear on what does, and does not, constitute failure. "It may have been by some interpretations a failure. For me it couldn't have been a failure because it was a very useful experience and it wasn't my money, so I wasn't concerned about that aspect of it," he says frankly. "It gave me the opportunity to have an experience the like of which I'd never had before. To work with a different mindset in terms of some of the people involved, to face challenges that I hadn't faced before. It helped me understand my craft and myself better. It wasn't a failure."</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">Ford does concede that not everyone may have shared his viewpoint about the film's success at the time, however. "What it was was, it did not meet expectations in terms of making the studio its money as quickly as they spent it," he says. "But it found an audience, an audience with enough loyalty, it found many visual artists who were inspired by the vigorous visual art that Ridley [Scott, director] has created, it gave them a lot of inspiration. I can't tell you how many times I hear from filmmakers that what inspired them was Ridley Scott's </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">, Denis [Villeneuve, director of </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner 2049</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">] being one of them. So, is it a failure?"</span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">That's a question that history has already answered comprehensively. The initial cinema release may have been underwhelming, but video and DVD sales, boosted by Scott's </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Director's Cut</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]"> in 1992 and </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Final Cut</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]"> in 2007 have more than countered that initial disappointment. </span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">The film reinvented the sci-fi genre, giving birth to a brand new genre – future-noir – and inspiring almost every sci-fi film that would follow. </span> <span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]">The movie's fans are legion. Now, it's up to </span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]" data-atex-fs="NormalItalic"><em>Blade Runner 2049</em></span><span data-atex-cstyle="$ID/[No character style]"> to take that legacy forward.</span> ________________ <strong>Read more:</strong> ________________