Harrison Ford wanted Indiana Jones to look his age in The Dial of Destiny. The actor, who is now 80, is playing a 70-year-old version of Indy in the upcoming movie.
In a new interview with Esquire, Ford shared a particular scene in which he fought to show this. Early on in the movie, Indy is riding a horse on a subway platform in New York City. When he finished the scene, he recalled feeling hands on his legs.
"I thought, 'What the fuck?' Like I was being attacked by gropers," he told the magazine. "I look down and there’s three stunt guys there making sure I didn’t fall off the stirrup. 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, I’m an old man. Leave me alone, I’m an old man getting off a horse and I want it to look like that!'"
It’s certainly refreshing for age to be a central topic in an action movie like this, and Ford has previously spoken about it being one of the main reasons he came back. Chatting to Total Film magazine in our big cover feature on the movie, Ford explained: "I always wanted to see a completion of the character. I wanted to see [Indiana Jones] at a later stage of his life, when he’s beyond the youthful enthusiasm and capacity, and beset by age and [stifled by academia]. I wanted to see him engage on one more unexpected, unanticipated adventure."
It was important James Mangold’s version didn’t shy away from the topic, continued Ford. "I wanted it to concern age, I wanted it to confront the issues of age for a character who had always been adventurous, youthful, and capable, physically. I wanted to see the effects of age on the character."
