Harrison Ford has shed light on previous negative comments he made about the 1997 thriller, The Devil's Own.
The movie, directed by Alan J Pakula (Sophie’s Choice), stars Ford as an Irish-American policeman who takes in Brad Pitt’s character – an IRA terrorist posing as an immigrant construction worker.
At the time of the release, Ford called the production “tough” while Pitt said the shoot was “the most irresponsible bit of filmmaking, if you can even call it that, that I've ever seen”.
In a new interview with Esquire, Ford explained that he and Pitt clashed over conflicting opinions about the film’s script.
“Brad developed the script. Then they offered me the part. I saved my comments about the character and the construction of the thing – I admired Brad,” Ford said.
“First of all, I admire Brad. I think he’s a wonderful actor. He’s a really decent guy. But we couldn’t agree on a director until we came to Alan Pakula, who I had worked with before but Brad had not.
“Brad had this complicated character, and I wanted a complication on my side so that it wasn’t just a good-and-evil battle. And that’s when I came up with the bad-shooting thing.”
The side plot Ford came up with saw his character cover up for his partner who shot an unarmed thief in the back.
“I worked with a writer – but then all the sudden we’re shooting and we didn’t have a script that Brad and I agreed on,” Ford said.
“Each of us had different ideas about it. I understand why he wanted to stay with his point of view, and I wanted to stay with my point of view – or I was imposing my point of view, and it’s fair to say that that’s what Brad felt. It was complicated. I like the movie very much. Very much.”
Despite the beleaguered production, The Devil’s Own went on to be a box office hit, earning $140m (£112m) worldwide.
Ford, 80, is currently reprising his role of the adventurous archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which will be released on 30 June. You can read The Independent’s review here.
