Ridley Scott talks about Blade Runner star Harrison Ford; says financiers initially didn't know the actor: Reports

Ridley Scott recently revealed how difficult it was to cast Harrison Ford in his iconic Blade Runner role.

The Gladiator II director, who seems unstoppable even in his late 80s, has made remarkable films throughout his career. Whether it's The Martian (2015), Thelma and Louise (1991), Black Hawk Dawn (2001), or American Gangster (2007), he has managed to find something peculiar in every genre. Alien (1979) was an early success in his filmography and then came Blade Runner (1982). Although considered a masterwork by many, the 1982 film didn't start out that way. It received a particularly scathing review by The New Yorker film critic, Pauline Kael.

While speaking with GQ about his iconic films, Ridley Scott recalled the experience of casting Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner:

“Harrison Ford was not a star. He had just finished flying the Millennium Falcon in ‘Star Wars.' I remember my financiers saying, ‘Who the f*** is Harrison Ford?’ And I said, ‘You’re going to find out.’ Harry became my leading man.”

Find out what else the filmmaker reveals about his 1982 sci-fi classic.

---

Ridley Scott reflects on the experience of casting Harrison Ford in Blade Runner

Harrison Ford is one of the most recognizable cultural icons in Hollywood. It is nearly impossible to see anyone else as Han Solo or Indiana Jones. However, that wasn't always the case for this 82-year-old actor - as Ridley Scott described during his GQ interview. Back in the 1980s, Scott decided to "invent a new world" for his revered Blade Runner. He wanted to cast Ford in the central role of Rick Deckard.

By then, Ford had worked on Steven Speilberg's Indiana Jones and George Lucas' Star Wars series. So, Speilberg reportedly gave Scott a green signal to cast Ford in Blade Runner. The financiers had a different view of this actor, who wasn't a household name at the time. So, Scott needed to do a bit of convincing to bring Ford on board to play the iconic Blade Runner.

Besides casting Ford, Ridley Scott also spoke about the process of writing this sci-fi film. He says:

“I spent five months with a very good writer, Hampton Fancher, who’d really written a play adapted from [Philip K. Dick's novel] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And so I read the book and felt there were 90 stories in the first 20 pages and I thought, ‘It’s too complex.'”

Then, he continues:

“But I [Ridley Scott] sat with Hampton and said, ‘You’ve written this beautiful story that takes place in an apartment. It’s an internal story where a ‘hunter’ falls in love with his quarry. Love your cadence, love the rhythm of your dialogue, love your dialogue, love the idea. I want to see what happens when he goes out the door.’ And from that moment on, we just went boom.”

---

Also read: Ridley Scott finally reveals why his Bee Gees biopic is delayed at Paramount