There are comparisons that have no escape. In the new installment of the adventures of Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios, Captain America: Brave New Worlddirected by Julius Oona and that will premiere in Spain next Friday, February 14, Harrison Ford (Chicago, 82 years) again interprets a president of the United States. But in this case, the character is the legendary character Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross, a comic antihero that converts into a red red red monster (rather pulling orange?) That faces the superhero.
– It is difficult to avoid falling into the trap of comparing presidents….
“I’m going to help you avoid it,” Ford interrupts with a half smile that reveals what the limit of his patience will be during the interview. “This president does not resemble any other. There is no reference (in the film) to any presidential reality. This is a fiction, based on Marvel characters. Bill Hurt (the late actor William Hurt) created the character that I interpret now, and refers to a world full of imagination and solutions that are not available in real life, ”says the actor.
Ford has granted 20 minutes of interview with El País in the room of a luxurious London hotel, as part of the promotion of the new film. There are no mandatory conditions on the object of the questions, that the newspaper, on the other hand, would not have accepted. But it is true that the producer had “kindly asked” that the focus of the interview revolved around the new film.
– What should be the values of a president of the United States? What values do you expect from someone who occupies that position?
– Respect for the history of the country, attention to the virtues of that country and good judgment.
“And the current president of the United States gathers those virtues?”
This is the time when the interview enters a much more tense and complicated path. The head of the communication agency that has managed the meeting and supervises it, sitting a couple of meters from the actor, tries to stop the questions. “I’m very sorry, but we have to adjust to the movie …”
Ford, with the voice and authority that has accumulated for years, cuts in dry any attempt to guard the conversation. “I take care of this,” he says, while extending the palm of his hand to the representative so that street. “It is not part of this interview that I can talk about political matters,” says the actor. “I am here to talk about a film, a fiction, of something that is pure entertainment.”
– I imagine, in any case, that you are aware of what your image represents worldwide and that any European journalist would be tempted to ask …
– I am aware, and respect both his responsibility as a journalist and the opportunity that has been presented to him, but I will not let him take advantage of her.
Disarmed. It is really arduous to be insistent with an icon that has that voice and that look of authority, which has accustomed us for decades with its films. Someone who is a meter of you, sitting, face to face and does not stop smiling while suggesting that you go ahead with the interview for other paths, or the described.
So, before a legend, the conversation abandons the world of politics and returns to that of cinema, where Ford continues to work even though he does not need it and despite the fact that the golden era that made it a universal star seems to have been left behind . “This world has changed. I have changed. But I don’t think it corresponds to me to judge it. We always look with the past and tend to forget the complications that existed then. It is clear that today’s world is different, but the things that drive us to involve, such as the complexity of human relationships, are still there, ”he explains.
In recent years, the actor has successfully participated in the world of television series. Interpret the therapist Paul Rhoades in comedy Therapy without filter (Shrinking) and to the Patriarch of the Dutton, the Rancheros family of Montana, in 1923, The prequel of Yellowstonestarring Kevin Costner.
“The type of projects in which I choose to participate are based on the best scripts that have gone through my hands in a long time,” says the actor. “They offer me the opportunity to tell very powerful stories, led by fantastic filmmakers. What we do is not television. These are films that last ten hours and fragment in ten episodes. The opportunity offered to develop a character and its relationships greatly exceeds the possibilities of a film, and it is fascinating to work that way ”.
Ford is a man committed to his time, who regrets the setback that the fight against climate change experiences today. He has historically supported the Democratic Party, but is above all a firm defender of moderation and intermediate road. That is why he gave the Republican John McCain, who represented an institutionality and seriousness lost in American politics. And contributed to the Lincoln project, a committee formed by Republicans and former republicans who wanted to stop Trump’s re -election in 2020.
Do not buy the idea, spread by the American right, that compromised and risky movies like Apocalypse Nowby Francis Ford Coppola, in which he intervened, they would not have been possible in the current era of the dictatorship of the politically correct. “If there is still a Coppola, if there is still a script of that level and if again the appropriate cultural moment was given to address, for example, the sequelae of something like Vietnam, and make it art, of course it would be possible. Things change, but they always end up being the same, ”Ironiza.
He also gave his support to the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, in the last presidential elections. He defended his moderation against the desire for revenge of his rival. But Trump has returned to the White House. And for the moment, Indiana Jones, Han Solo, and even Dr. Richard Kimble, of the wantedThey do not seem to want to be dragged to the controversy. In the hotel hall, while the journalist picks up his things and puts on his coat, Ford passes with his public relations courtship. He stops, extends his hand and says goodbye again without abandoning the smile: “Good luck,” he says, without clearing if it is irony, complicity or mere courtesy.