If there was ever any doubt that Harrison Ford didn’t care much about Star Wars then this should be able to put the next nail in that particular coffin. He’s never been that shy about stating just what he thinks of the saga, as he even asked George Lucas to kill his character in Return of the Jedi as Kevin Burwick from MovieWeb reminds us. But to think that the man who played Han doesn’t know what a Force ghost is, and furthermore doesn’t care, is kind of, well, it’s not that surprising really. Ford was about the only person to come out of the original trilogy with a clear and shining path towards continued fame as much of the cast didn’t do a whole lot following ROTJ. It would immortalize all of them without a doubt, cementing their characters firmly within pop culture for decades to come, but for Ford, even talking about Star Wars has been an irritating experience ever since considering that he wanted out of the role so long ago. It’s nice to see that he was persuaded to come back for The Force Awakens as it would have been kind of hard to go without him, but despite the shock of his death, his return in Rise of Skywalker was equally approved of by a lot of fans.
It might set a few hackles to rising to realize that Ford doesn’t really care about the saga that helped to set him along a path to fame, but to be blunt, he left Star Wars in the rear view the moment he had the chance and hasn’t really enjoyed talking about it much throughout the years. Despite being a middling actor who’s only real credit came from American Graffiti, Ford somehow blundered his way into a reading for the part of Han Solo, as Brian Cronin of CBR reminds us, and the rest, as it’s been said, is history. From Indiana Jones to his many other roles Harrison has had a much better time with his career than he did while pretending to be a smuggler and reluctant hero. Fans might prop him up in a big way and there’s no doubt that many are wondering just why he doesn’t like talking about Star Wars, especially since he was persuaded to come back, but just to be clear, it wasn’t for the love of the movies. In fact he admitted to coming back because J.J. Abrams persuaded him to, and because he had a desire to give some sort of added boost to Adam Driver’s character. In essence, Harrison was closing out his time in the saga while allowing Driver to put another finishing touch on his own arc as he has a great deal of respect for the younger actor.
That’s something that’s pretty hard to fault since it’s unselfish and shows that Harrison, gruff as he can be, especially when talking about Star Wars, does care about others and will go the extra length to help them out. Yes, it’s still regrettable that the man we’ve known as Han Solo for so long was never really into his role all that much, but it’d be eye-opening for certain if people learned just how many actors never really liked the roles that helped to make them famous. As Austin Carroll Baker of Screenrant shows, there are several people that didn’t care for their signature roles, and if people didn’t know already, stars such as Miley Cyrus and Sean Connery despised playing Hannah Montana and James Bond respectively. That likely came as a shock to a lot of people the first time they heard the news, but the truth of it is hard to get away from. It’s a job, and that’s what a lot of people don’t tend to realize that often. Actors aren’t stupid, they see the paycheck and they’ll gravitate towards it as much as anyone would given that saying no to certain roles would be a huge mistake. Seeing as how the role of Han Solo kind of fell into his lap, Harrison Ford might have been one of the biggest misses had he passed on the part, especially considering that the role propelled him from mediocrity to mega-stardom rather quickly following the epic saga.
So he doesn’t know what a Force ghost is, that’s not the worst thing in the world. There have been plenty of actors in countless movies that have known barely anything about the movie other than their role. It might rankle the diehard Star Wars fans that one of their favorite characters doesn’t know one of the most common aspects of the story, but then again one has to think about how involved Harrison really was in the spiritual aspect of the whole story, and then step back, part the iron curtains of ego, and realize that Han spent a good deal of time apart from the Force. It makes sense that Harrison Ford wouldn’t know much about Force ghosts since really, his part never called for that type of interaction on his part, and throughout the years his relationship with Star Wars has likely been peripheral at best.
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