Ace director Steven Spielberg and veteran actor Harrison Ford have a strange relationship when it comes to casting for a film. Spielberg, in his fifty years of filmmaking career, has set the bar incredibly high.
Thanks to the massive range of his directorial skills, Spielberg’s projects are either extremely mythical or too realistic. But, choosing the most suitable face to lead his films has always been his major priority.
The hold he has had on his casting team may have upset the superstar of his time – Harrison Ford. Although both artists have worked together in the adventure film franchise Indiana Jones over the years, Spielberg had other plans for the most critically acclaimed film of his career.
Casting an action superstar in a film that depicts real incidents can be tricky as the audience stereotypes an actor based on his earlier films. And Spielberg knew that from the beginning.
Harrison Ford And Steven Spielberg Had Creative Differences
After spending almost a decade together trying to find lost artifacts in a race against time with evil powers, Spielberg and Ford ended up disagreeing on a project that was similar to the latter’s exploits.
Apart from the fact that Ford thought the role wasn’t suitable for him, it is unknown why exactly, after the repeated requests of Steven Spielberg, Ford turned down playing Sam Neill alongside Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park (1993).
The apparent reason could be Harrison Ford’s super-stardom which led him to believe that he can’t share the screen with other major actors.
This helped Steven Spielberg to realize that he wanted to keep Ford and his limelight away from certain films that were inspired by real-life incidents.
Steven Spielberg Nixed Harrison Ford From $322M Project
A German industrialist saving more than a thousand Jews from the Nazis during World War II needed a face that the audience could mark as fresh. And that is how the role of Oskar Schindler was rewarded to Liam Neeson.
Bagging seven Academy Awards, out of which two were taken home by Steven Spielberg for best picture and best director, Schindler’s List speaks volumes about his decision not to cast Ford.
“I didn’t want the distraction of a whole bunch of other movies to cloud this one,” said Spielberg in an interview with Inside Film Magazine. “It would have been easy — I had the movie stars coming to me for this part. I just didn’t want to go that way.”
While it is up for speculation among fans if there was any bad blood between the two collaborators, James Mangold directing the fifth installment – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could indicate something.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny released on June 30, and may arrive on Disney+ sometime in August.
Source: Looper
