Harrison Ford recalls his “complicated” battle with Brad Pitt from 1997’s The Devil’s Own.
The veteran actor told Esquire that the Hollywood couple developed a dispute over their “different ideas” regarding the film’s screenplay.
Brad wrote it. They offered me the part. “I saved my comments about the character and the construction,” the 80-year-old performer said.
First, I admire Brad. I love his acting. Good person. Harrison said, “But we couldn’t agree on a director until we came to Alan Pakula, who I had worked with before but Brad hadn’t,” referring to his 1990 mystery picture Presumed Innocent.
In The Devil’s Own, Harrison plays a New York police detective who discovers his houseguest, a lethal IRA assassin (Brad Pitt), is a terrorist trying to buy missiles.
“Different views” caused the Indiana Jones actor to fight with his former co-star.
Both characters do what they think is right, yet they clash.
“Brad had this complicated character, and I wanted a complication on my side so that it wasn’t just a good-and-evil battle,” he said. “Then I thought of the bad-shooting thing.”
Harrison’s character becomes ethically confused after seeing his buddy (Rubén Blades) kill someone in the film.
The Star Wars star says it was difficult to incorporate Harrison’s storyline into the picture during filming.
“I worked with a writer—but then all of a sudden we’re shooting and we don’t have a script that Brad and I agreed on,” Harrison said.
We had different opinions. I see why he wanted to stay with his point of view, and I wanted to stay with mine—or I was forcing my point of view, which Brad felt.”
“Complicated,” he said. I love the film. A lot.”
Harrison confirmed his return to Indiana Jones in September’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The action-adventure flick opens June 30.
