It seems that Indiana Jones is not the only classic that we owe to the alliance between Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg.
When one thinks of the alliance between Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford, it is undoubtedly because of Indiana Jones. That mythical adventure film debuted in 1981, just a year before Spielberg established himself, if he hadn’t already done so, with the eighties icon ‘ET the Extraterrestrial’. Now Spielberg himself has revealed that the star of his previous film, already a celebrity after also ‘Star Wars’, was the one who made this alien family classic possible.
When they both worked on ‘Indiana Jones: In Search of the Requested Ark’, the director asked his questions and consulted Ford’s then-girlfriend, Melissa Mathison (his wife until 2004), for much of the story. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
I needed a writer to write with me or hopefully write it based on the story. She said, ‘Well, I’m retired from writing. I no longer write. I’m not interested in writing anymore, it’s too hard.’ I went to Harrison and said, ‘Your girlfriend turned me down. She doesn’t want to write my next movie.’ He said, ‘Well, let me talk to her.’ He talked to her and she came to me the next day and said, ‘Okay, you’ve got Harrison so excited about this. What am I missing?’ I think she hadn’t told her the story very well because I told it to her again and she got very emotional and committed right there in the Tunis desert.
Come on, although the real merit was Melissa Mathison and Spielberg himself, if it weren’t for Ford’s insistence and how he convinced his partner, perhaps that Spielberg idea would have remained in limbo, without a writer who would give them true body.
He did the scene where ET is at home levitating all the stuff for his communicator up the stairs. Elliott is in the principal’s office after the frog incident. We never see Harrison’s face. We only hear his voice, we see his body. Henry’s chair begins to levitate, so as ET lifts all the communicator paraphernalia up the stairs, Henry begins to lift off the floor in the chair until his head hits the ceiling. Just as Harrison turns around, ET loses control of the weight and everything falls down the stairs, and Henry falls to the ground and lands perfectly. Landing in four points. The director turns, and as far as he cares, nothing ever happened.
Of course, that scene was not in the premiere montage of the tape.7
Thus, most of the time, the history of cinema is built, both the bad and the good and the regular, with ideas arising from casual encounters, conversations, friends, improvisations or simple accidents. That is why we will never fully discover it, although we will try.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
