Harrison Ford Thanks Tom Selleck for Turning Down Indiana Jones Role Over 4 Decades Ago.
Harrison Ford knows he owes one of his career-defining roles to Tom Selleck.
As Ford, 80, appeared alongside his Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny costars Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mikkelsen at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy on Sunday, the actor recalled to Deadline that Steven Spielberg only cast him as Indiana Jones after Selleck, now 78, was forced to drop out of 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“How I got the job? Tom Selleck had the job, but he also incurred an obligation to do a television series and he was unable to get out of that contract,” Ford said during a panel discussion, as he was asked how he came to play Indiana Jones. “I became the second choice, and I’m very grateful for Tom. Thank you, Tom, man. If you’re listening, thank you again.”
Ford went on to describe how franchise creator George Lucas, whom he had already collaborated with on Star Wars, called him to tell him to read a script he was sending to Ford’s home.
“He said ‘I want you to read it right away, I want you to read it in an hour.’ I sat down, I read it an an hour, and he said ‘I want you to go over to Steven Spielberg’s house and talk to him,’ ” the actor detailed. “I went to Steven Spielberg’s house, I had never met Steven Spielberg before. I guess about an hour later I had the job.”
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