Ridley Scott says BLADE RUNNER financiers asked “Who the hell is Harrison Ford?” After casting Han Solo in STAR WARS

Ridley Scott says BLADE RUNNER financiers asked “Who the hell is Harrison Ford?” After casting Han Solo in STAR WARS

Director Ridley Scott sat down with GQ magazine for a retrospective video interview and revealed that the financiers of his 1982 sci-fi thriller Blade Runner he initially questioned his decision to pitch Harrison Ford in the main role.

Ford had already played the lead role of Han Solo in Star Wars at that point in his career, as well as being drafted Steven Spielberg by title Raiders of the Lost Ark. But apparently the financiers weren’t big fans of the biggest hits of the time?

Scott explained: “Harrison Ford was not a star. He had just finished piloting the Millennium Falcon in “Star Wars.” I remember my financiers saying, “Who the fuck is Harrison Ford?” And I said, “You’ll figure it out.” Harry became my protagonist.”

Spielberg was in post-production Raiders of the Lost Ark and gave Ford a thumbs up when Scott asked if he should cast the actor Blade Runner. Ford was interested in working with Scott in the film as he marked a more dramatic character than Han Solo and Indiana Jones.

He continued, “In ‘Blade Runner’ I was inventing a whole new world. I spent five months with a very good writer, Hampton Fancher, who had actually written a play adapted from the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

“I read the book and felt there were 90 stories in the first 20 pages and it was too complex. Hampton wrote this beautiful story set in an apartment. I really liked the dialogue, but I wanted to see what happens when he walks out the door.

Scott went on to talk about how the film wasn’t an immediate success and how it produced one of the worst reviews ever written about one of his films.

Blade Runner was a slow burn for its fans, but eventually led to it becoming a cult classic. If you’d like to watch the full interview with Ridley Scott, check it out below:

by Jessica Fisher
Source: Geek Tyrant

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top Trending

Related POSTS