Harrison Ford has had a number of close calls in his life.
We’ve all obviously seen the actor have brushes with death in movies like Indiana Jones and TV shows like 1923, and there’s an outside chance he’s so good in those scenes because he’s actually lived through some rather traumatic moments. The 82-year-old actor, who’s had his pilot’s license since the 1990s, has been involved in five different aviation accidents and near-misses since 1999 and has survived each of these:
-Helicopter crash in 1999
-Runway overshoot in 2000
-Small plane crash into golf course in 2015
-Flew directly over a Boeing 737 in 2017
-Runway crossing mishap in 2020
Out of all of those, the plane crash in 2015 has evidently been the incident that’s stuck with him the most. After crash landing into the Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California (after his plane’s engine failed), Ford was rushed to the hospital and was considered to be in serious condition. The actor suffered many broken bones, including a broken ankle and a broken pelvis.
Here’s a picture from the scene when it took place back in 2015:
DEVELOPING: Sources: Actor Harrison Ford taken to hospital after small plane crash-lands: http://t.co/sgppMS8y3W pic.twitter.com/YGdy24YHOi
— ABC News (@ABC) March 5, 2015
As you might imagine, all of those harrowing experiences – especially the 2015 crash – have impacted Harrison Ford. And his 1923 co-star Helen Mirren has noticed it.
Mirren, who plays Clara Dutton, and Ford, who plays Jacob Dutton, are a match made in heaven on Taylor Sheridan’s prequel Yellowstone series 1923. The pair play the ancestors of the Dutton family that the flagship Yellowstone series focuses on, and before they were together on the hit Paramount+ show, they also shared the screen in other projects like the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast.
When they got back together to work on 1923, the 79-year-old actress could tell that something was different about Ford, as she explained in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:
“Something rather magical has happened to Harrison, especially with his history of, you know, being the dude, the bloke, the fabulous action guy, the funny guy, the cool guy. Now there’s this open road to his inner feelings, which he is absolutely unafraid of expressing. It’s just a true, quick, instinctive emotional reaction to things, without sentimentality.”
Helen Mirren was almost positive that his change in demeanor was because of his 2015 plane crash.
And she was later able to confirm that feeling when Mirren and Ford filmed one of their very first scenes together as the Duttons. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll likely remember the scene from the first season when the Dutton family ranch comes under attack, and the ambush leaves Ford’s Jacob Dutton horribly injured.
Mirren recalls that particular day of filming brought forth some of Ford’s emotions:
“He’s been carried into the kitchen, dying and covered in blood, and later Harrison did say to me, ‘That was how I was after the accident.’ I think, maybe, going through that experience just gave him a very different understanding of what it is to be a sentient human being.”
Clearly the actor has never been the same after his crash landing.
Harrison Ford even admitted to People back in 2023 that he saw a lot of parallels between himself and Jacob Dutton’s close calls:
“When the scripts were coming, I was struck by how many major moments in my character’s life had a substantial and not coincidental shadow of the same things in my life.
I watched a rehearsal with a stand-in being brought into the kitchen, and Helen coming in, sweeping everything off the counter, taking command. Even when I talk about it now, it emotionally relates to the airplane crash I had and what my wife went through.”
The most interesting part of it all is, just like a member of the Dutton family would, the crashes and near-misses have never slowed down Harrison Ford. The 82-year-old is as busy and fearless as ever, and as strange as it might sound, Ford might be a better actor and person because of the crashes he’s experienced in his life.
Catch up on all of 1923 Season 1 while you’re here and grab a 7-Day free trial for Paramount+ to watch this and other Taylor Sheridan shows like Tulsa King and Landman.
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The post Helen Mirren Says Her ‘1923’ Co-Star Harrison Ford Was Forever Changed By His 2015 Plane Crash: “An Open Road To His Inner Feelings” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.