Harrison Ford Taped Script Lines to His Head to Help Nervous Brendan Fraser Remember Dialogue
Harrison Ford is a film veteran that many actors look up to, including recent Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser. But this meant actually working with Ford could be a nerve-racking ordeal that caused him to miss a few lines.
So Ford came up with an innovative way to help his co-star with his dialogue.
Brendan Fraser asked Harrison Ford about his ‘Brass Balls Award’ before he was cast in their film ‘Extraordinary Measures’
Ford and Fraser would cross paths in the 2010 feature Extraordinary Measures. But the two originally met each other a couple of years prior to filming. The Whale star first ran into his idol on stage at the Spike TV awards.
“I was selling mummy warriors and he was selling crystal skulls. It was my duty, my obligation, to present him with Spike TV’s Brass Balls Award,” he once said in an interview with Vulture.
The two would later meet for Extraordinary Measures, which already had Ford attached to star. After reuniting with Ford, Fraser couldn’t help ask the veteran about the award he’d received.
“I later met him to read [for Extraordinary Measures] in an office and I was feeling it out — I wasn’t sure if I was getting hired or not — and I said, ‘I gotta ask, so whatever became of the Brass Balls?’ I was daring myself to say, ‘Jump up and down, I want to hear them clank.’ But he said, ‘Nah, I sold them for scrap metal,’” Fraser remembered.
Harrison Ford taped a script to his forehead to help nervous Brendan Fraser remember his lines
Ford had mostly positive things to say about his experience working with Fraser. Fraser played John Crowley in their movie, who was a real person that left his high-paying corporate job to tend to his sick children. Ford spoke highly of Fraser’s ability to portray an actual person while adding his own personality to make the role unique.
“No, what Brendan brought, from the very first time we read through material together and when we talked about it, was an authenticity,” Fraser once told Collider. “He didn’t attempt an imitation of John Crowley. He just reached into his own experience and his own emotions and understood, and because he understood and because he felt, he’s had a lot of experience.”
However, Fraser admitted to having a lot of nerves working with an actor he’d admired for so long. So much so that Fraser couldn’t remember a line in the script after trying 15 times to do so.
To rectify the issue, the Star Wars alum eventually borrowed duct tape and a Sharpie from a crew member. Then he taped Fraser’s line from the script on his forehead in order for Fraser to read it. This got a huge laugh out of the cast and crew, and even Fraser himself.
“It was hysterical, but it totally defined Harrison,” Fraser once said according to Orange County Register. “His philosophy on acting is ‘Do it, and do it right.’”
Harrison Ford on why he taped a piece of the script to his forehead
Ford asserted that he meant no harm in taping the script to his forehead. Rather, he was just trying to get The Mummy actor to loosen up, which is what he accomplished.
“Every once in a while, an actor gets stuck on something, and he just needs to relax,” Ford said. “I was just trying to get him to relax. Acting is all about being comfortable. Marlon Brando once said that an actor can’t care about anything or the audience will see it on his face. Maybe Brendan was caring too much.”
