Harrison Ford has given us several of the most iconic movie characters including Han Solo, Indiana Jones… and his memorable Rick Deckard in the original ‘Blade Runner’ and in ‘Blade Runner 2049’, of course.
Although Ridley Scott’s film did not do too well on its release, over the years it has become a real cult gem adored by fans of the science fiction genre. Between the different versions and cuts of the film and the controversies around which edition is the good one, Harrison Ford had several things very clear in his day about ‘Blade Runner’, starting with the happy ending and continuing with the fact that the voices in off They didn’t even hit him with glue.
No voiceovers, no bagpipes
Before debuting, ‘Blade Runner’ was going to have a slightly different edition, but test screenings left viewers somewhat confused with the plot. In the end, the easiest solution was to include Deckard’s voiceover to explain certain moments, which was also a good nod to classic film noir movies. Over time, the actor has been changing his mind, but in hisAt one point Ford was not amused by the decision but he had to enter the ring out of obligation.
“I was contractually obligated to do the narration. When I agreed to do the film, I told Ridley [Scott] that there was too much information for the audience in the narrative,” Ford explained in an interview with Playboy in 2002.
“I told him… We are going to remove it and put it in scenes so that the public has this information in a natural way, without us having to tell them,” the actor continued. “And he thought it was a good idea, so we sat down at the kitchen table and changed it. And when it was done, the studio said that nobody understood this fucking movie and that we had to create a narrative.”
The voiceover theme was almost a turn-taking disaster from the start, as Ford recorded its lines before even seeing the full script, so he thought they were a test and weren’t going to be used in the film because they didn’t feel like “an organic part of the movie”. Not only that, but as the actor explains, he was barely allowed to give his own tone to the lines and felt no connection to the material he was reading.
“Did I do it wrong on purpose? No, I recorded them the best I could since I didn’t have any guidance. I never thought they would use them, I didn’t try to sabotage them at all. It was just bad storytelling,” Ford said of recording his lines. . “I couldn’t participate in them, so I just read them. I wasn’t happy at all with the decisions that were made or the quality of the material.”
Another of the changes to the cut of ‘Blade Runner’ that most blew Ford away during production was the inclusion of a happy ending. With the bad reactions to the test screenings, Scott decided to add an extra scene to clarify the future of Deckard and Rachael, but Ford was not amused either because he felt that it showed more than necessary and that it clashed with the rest of the film. .