On becoming a carpenter after reading some books:
Surely it wasn't really that simple?
“Well, yes and no. I knew how to run the tools. I knew how to cut a straight line. I cared that it was straight—which was the biggest part of it. My dad had a little workshop in our basement and we'd done some work together. I watched him cut his finger off one day down in the basement.”
Seriously?
“Yeah. So there was a good lesson. He was cutting a sheet of plywood on a little table saw and it kicked back and”—Ford holds up the middle finger on his right hand—“he'd cut off this finger and”—now Ford holds up his forefinger—“came halfway through.”
He lost the middle finger permanently?
“Yeah. Actually, I did pick it up and wrap it in Kleenex and put it in my pocket, but when I got to the hospital—we went there in the back of a police car—I handed it to the emergency-room surgeon, who went and threw it in the bin.”
How old were you?
“Probably about 16.”
Were you traumatized by it?
“No, I wasn't traumatized by it.” He laughs. “It wasn't my finger.”
How was your dad?
“He was stoic. Irish.”
Ford explains that his father's half-severed forefinger healed at an angle, which gave young Harrison a new opening.
“Every time after that, he would point at me”—Ford mimes someone brandishing a bent forefinger in reprimand—“and I would look where his finger was pointing. It used to piss him off.”
Again, Ford halts himself. It's occurred to him that in recounting this tale, he has pointed his finger at me in a certain manner, and he is well aware that finger-pointing is considered one of his on-screen signatures.
“I know you're thinking, ‘Ah, that's where it comes from!’ ” he says. “I'm not aware of doing it.”
On Carrie Fisher's memoir, in which she revealed that the two had an affair:
How strange for you was it when Carrie Fisher put out her ‘Star Wars’ book?
“It was strange. For me.”
Did you have any advance warning?
“Um, to a degree. Yes.”
And what did you think?
“Oh, I don't know. I don't know. You know, with Carrie's untimely passing, I don't really feel that it's a subject that I want to discuss.”
Can I ask you whether you'd prefer that it hadn't been written?
“Yes. You can ask me.”
Do you want to answer?
“No.”
Can I ask you whether you read it?
“No. I didn't.”
On punching Ryan Gosling in the face:
“I punched Ryan Gosling in the face,” Ford confirms. Then he adds, by way of clarification, that “Ryan Gosling's face was where it should not have been.”
Explain further, if you will.
“His job was to be out of the range of the punch. My job was also to make sure that I pulled the punch. But we were moving, and the camera was moving, so I had to be aware of the angle to the camera to make the punch look good. You know, I threw about a hundred punches in the shooting of it, and I only hit him once.”
So he should be grateful?
“I have pointed that out.”
And the one that did connect—that's 100 percent his fault?
“No.” Ford makes as though he's carefully weighing this. “I mean, I suppose it's 90 percent his fault.”
That is very—
“—generous of me.”
He said you went to his dressing room with a bottle of scotch…
“I did.”
…and poured him a glass, then walked out with the bottle.
“Yeah? What—did he fucking expect the whole bottle? You know, I figured one drink would fix it. That was enough.”
Read the full interview at GQ.
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