“I was a kid who never found a niche. I wasn’t an athlete, I wasn’t a school leader. I wasn’t anything. I was a late bloomer, I think.” —Harrison Ford
How could that possibly be?
Late blooming is a typical profile for dyslexic young people because their talents and their challenges are all over the place – and things you’re supposed to learn in school (reading, writing, arithmetic) are difficult if not impossible to automate.
In a few interviews, Harrison mentioned that he was a sloth in school – you wouldn’t think it if you watched all the movies he’s in – but that’s kind of how it is for some people in their early years.
Harrison often talks about how he was bullied at school, but he found some refuge in Boy Scouts. When studying for a reptile merit badge, he worked at an adventure boy scout camp with reptiles. Even though Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes, Harrison is quite comfortable with them and likes them a lot.
Outside of acting, Harrison has led an eclectic life. He was painfully shy as a child and thought of drama classes to to help him get over some of his shyness.
He was a philosophy major in school (not an uncommon major for may dyslexics who like the big picture and looking at big ideas behind ideas), but struggled getting passing grades, and eventually left Ripon College without a degree.
Fortunately, Harrison had taken a drama class in his senior year and had been encouraged by his teacher and liked the acting community. He did a little summer theater, then headed out to Hollywood. As he describes, he was slowly starving as an aspiring actor, so to support his young family, he checked out books on carpentry from the local library and soon was getting paid well as a carpenter.
As encouraging as his college community was, he received plenty of bad advice over the years including “You have no future in movie business” from the head of a talent agency.
His breakthrough role (although still small) was when he was cast in American Graffiti. In fact, he was able to negotiate an increase above guild wage by saying that he made almost twice as much as a carpenter and had a wife and two children to support.
If you’re interested in Harrison Ford, the carpenter, check out a wonderful story at MrSawdust.com here. I did not know that Harrison was first hired to work on the Star Wars franchise not as an actor, but as a carpenter on the set.
For photos of Harrison as a carpenter, visit here.
In fact, Harrison first met George Lucas not during a casting call, but installing a door at Francis Ford Coppola’s house.
Harrison considers himself a lifelong carpenter – and was working as a carpenter through the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series, believe it or not. He also has been actively involved in remodeling his homes.
Other spatial talents of his including being a pilot of planes and helicopters and he has rescued several people by helicopters – one a lost Boy Scout near Yellowstone
The lost boy scout was amazed when Harrison was there to rescue him. Harrison apparently joked at the time,
“You certainly should have earned a merit badge for this.”
Apparently, Harrison Ford has also been involved in another rescue – one where he witnessed a car crash in front of him.
Harrison seems to have had a very full life outside the film industry – he has a family, but also has been active in environmental causes including being Vice- chair of Conservation International.
It difficult to sum up Harrison’s movie career because it spans 6 decades – but besides his roles in the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series, he is also well known for Witness (Academy Award), Blade Runner, The Fugitive, and Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.
Asked about whether he has a theory of acting, he said he didn’t have a theory about acting at all, but rather,
“I have a theory about storytelling, I suppose. I don’t know if I have ever cogently expressed it…in my case [acting] almost always proceeds from asking questions about the story. Not so much about the character., but the story. Why did the writer write it this way? What does it mean? It’s sort of a practical look at the way the thing is made.
If I can develop full confidence in the material, then I know what the purpose is, and the acting comes easily…”
What he said reminded me of what we’ve heard from other dyslexic people about the logic of stories and the story arcs and downstream events that come from that. As remarkable as Harrison’s interests and talents are, the wonderful breadth can be more common than you think among dyslexic people.
