Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford is not planning to retire despite starring in his final film in the series (Picture: Getty/Lucasfilm/Disney)
Harrison Ford has confirmed that he has no plans to retire from acting, as he bids farewell to one of his most iconic characters in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The 80-year-old actor, who has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Thaddeus Ross in upcoming films, wants to keep working because it helps him to feel ‘useful’.
He also claimed he doesn’t ‘do well’ when he hasn’t got filming on the horizon.
When asked about the possibility of retirement, he admitted: ‘I don’t do well when I don’t have work. I love to work… I love to feel useful. It’s my Jones, I want to be helpful.’
The 1923 and Shrinking actor loves the ‘intensity and intimacy of collaboration’ of working on a film set he said, while speaking to CNN host Chris Wallace, via Deadline.
Asked why he likes acting so much, he said: ‘It is the people that you get to work with. The intensity and the intimacy of collaboration… it’s the combined ambition, somehow forged from words on a page.
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‘I don’t plan what I want to do in a scene and I don’t feel obliged to do anything but I am naturally affected by the things that I work on.’
While Ford may not be planning to retire, he did recently confirm that upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – the fifth entry in the franchise – will be his last adventure as the whip-cracking archaeologist.
‘This is the final film in the series, and this is the last time I’ll play the character. I anticipate that it will be the last time that he appears in a film,’ he told Total Film magazine.
He also shared that he was not sad to be donning Indy’s iconic fedora for the last time, adding to Wallace: ‘It’s time for me to grow up!’
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is along for the ride in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny as Indy’s goddaughter Helena (Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd via AP)
Harrison is pleased to be waving goodbye to Indy but admitted he doesn’t ‘do well’ when he’s not working on films (Picture: EPA)
Ford also explained he had ‘always wanted’ to give the character a conclusive ending.
‘I’ve always wanted to do this. A final chapter. For Indiana Jones, I wanted to see him at the end of his career, at the end of the road that we’ve established. We’ve taken him part of the way, I wanted to take us all the way,’ he said to Entertainment Tonight.
The Ender’s Game star went on to add that he wanted new director James Mangold to ‘embrace’ the age of the action hero in the final film and teased that the entire franchise is closed out in a ‘beautiful’ way.
‘I wanted him to not run away from the age of the character, but to embrace it and to tell the story of a man who’s spent his life this particular way, and what it comes to. That ride wouldn’t have come if he hadn’t fallen so low.
With co-star Mads Mikkelsen, director James Mangold and Phoebe (Picture: John Salangsang/Shutterstock)
‘It wouldn’t have been the ride that it is and wouldn’t have ended the way that it does. And it ends in a beautiful way. It was gratifying to know that we were doing something that we both believed in, that we had a passion for. And that we did.’
Ford shared that he, Mangold and the cast and crew have all worked ‘really hard’ and that ‘completing the job itself was like completing the character’.
He appears alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas and the return of John Rhys-Davies as Sallah.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny hits UK cinemas on June 28.
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‘I love to work… I love to feel useful.’