Premiere Classics: When Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott talked about Blade Runner in 1982

In 1982, the actor and the director were already bickering over the question of the Replicant!

Blade Runner will once again be in the spotlight this Sunday: Arte will devote the entire evening to the cult film by Ridley Scott. First by proposing his famous “final cut” from 2007, at 9 p.m., then by rebroadcasting a documentary on this universe initially imagined by Philip K. Dick: Blade Runner, beyond fiction.

A perfect excuse to dive back into the archives of Firstin 1982, when the magazine devoted a feature to the future cult film.

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In September 1982, the film did not make the cover of the issue (it was Nastassja Kinski which is on the front page), because the editorial team moderately liked the science fiction feature film, which nevertheless became cult over time. This did not prevent the team from devoting a substantial subject to the project, composed of filming photos and interviews with the director Ridley Scott and its star Harrison Ford. Best of.

On page 7, Jean-Pierre Lavoignat delivers a mixed review, which highlights the visual beauty of the project Ridley Scott, but regrets that style takes precedence over substance. Excerpts: “As always, Scott takes care of the sets, the atmospheres, the costumes, the lights, wanting to create a new visual universe with each film. (the work of the designer Syd Mead and special effects creator Douglas Trumbull is then greeted). Rarely has the city of the future been so well thought out and created and presented such a dense vision. (…) Ridley Scott took so much care with the decor and atmosphere that he somewhat forgot the story and the characters to whom, however, Harrison Ford and three ‘discoveries’: Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah And Sean Young strive to bring life… The setting is superb but… a little empty, perhaps?”

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A little further, Henri Béhar addresses precisely this question of substance and form with the filmmaker, who, at 38, signs his third feature film after The Duelists And Alien. “We have always praised your visual sense, while emphasizing that it was sometimes exercised to the detriment of your characters and your direction of actors”tempts the journalist responsible for international meetings. “No one ever said it to my face! retort Ridley Scott tit for tat before explaining that in Alienthis makes “part of the game” : “it’s a variation on the principle of Ten Little NegroesAgatha Christie. Simple plot, characters who disappear one after the other. There was no room in Alien for subtle psychological analysis of the characters.”

Concerning Blade Runnerhe admits to having started by working on the visuals of the film: “It’s a process that seems logical to me”he replies before detailing that drawing is at the origin of his projects (HR Giger And Moebius For Alien, Syd Mead For Blade Runner). The first creations of the film are the vehicles: “We wanted to create a dense city with multiple nationalities, we were going to shoot in a studio, I wanted a certain excess in the vehicles and traffic, a bumper-to-bumper feeling in constant, monster traffic jams.” The incessant rain is also a crucial element in creating the ambiance Scott is looking for, which “derives directly from Bogart’s films” he says, even if this idea is transposed into a futuristic world. This also helps to reduce the side “shot in the studio” : “On a practical level, the rain, the fog, the vapors that escape from the tarmac like a New York, all this gives it a certain authenticity.”

Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford reunited in 2017 for Blade Runner 2049 (also with Ryan Gosling.

Harrison Fordhe speaks little about Blade Runner. He quickly explains that Rick Deckard is a character “completely different” of those he has played before, and he is delighted that the audience mainly remembers Deckard and not the actor. He also evokes in half-words a conflict which has since been widely addressed over the multiple re-releases of the film (final cut, director’s cut etc.): from the start, Scott imagined his character as a Replicant, while Ford did so. played like a human. “Ridley is demanding, but no more than me. He has a vision, which he defends, I have one too, and I defend it. This leads to discussions, then to an agreement on the conception of the character and his place in the film as a whole.”

Blade Runner: Was Deckard human or Replicant?

The actor then looks back on his early career, his few appearances, then his famous reconversion into a joiner-carpenter before trying his luck again in Hollywood. He is proud of his eclectic filmography, Star Wars has Heroes passing through War and passion : “If by strange you mean that it doesn’t have a rigid, rigid guideline, that’s exactly what I was looking for.”

He confirms having obtained the role of Indiana Jones following the refusal of Tom Selleckwhich was turning Magnum (“I got this role as a package deal.”), and that when Francis Ford Coppola proposed to him Apocalypse Now, he asked “the smallest role”since it was turning Star Wars at the same time. About the saga of George Lucasprecisely: at the time, Han Solo had been frozen at the end of The Empire Strikes Backbut we did not yet know how he would return in the following episode, then titled “Revenge of the Jedi”. “I’m being thawed, he then spoiled. So that I can speak. You don’t think they pay me such royal sums to stand still with a single expression on my face?”