Harrison Ford: What He Said That Made Women Literally Run from Him

Harrison Ford has a bit of a reputation as a lady’s man, however, a stunt man said he made women run from him while he was making Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Why? It was all because of a comment he made about Star Wars. In addition, Ford revealed he’s had lots of problems with women in general.

Harrison Ford reveals which women intimidate him

So Ford has an issue with women: he finds them scary. During a 2015 interview with Elle, Mickey Rapkin asked Ford if any woman ever intimidated him. Ford mentioned Sigourney Weaver, his co-star in Working Girl. Ford added “I’m just kidding,” he said. “They all intimidate me. They’re scary. They’re mysterious.”

Afterward, Rapkin asked Ford if a woman ever made him cry. “F*ck yes,” Ford replied. “They make me cry in movies. They make me cry when I’m worried about them. They make me cry when I’ve hurt them. They make me cry just for the hell of it sometimes.” Despite this, Ford still categorized himself as a romantic.

A bizarre encounter during the making of ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’

Ford’s troubles with women go back long before the aforementioned Elle interview. Stuntman Dickey Beer told the New York Post an anecdote about his time working with Ford. “As we were driving, he said to us stunt guys, ‘You’re so damn lucky. You get all the girls,’” Dickey recalled. “We said, ‘What are you talking about? You’re Harrison Ford!’ He said, ‘No one knows who I am.’”

Then, Ford spoke to some beautiful women walking nearby. “He said, ‘Hello, girls. It’s me, Han Solo,’” Beer said. “The girls took off running down the street.”

Why Harrison Ford’s comments made sense at the time

Ford’s comment that no one knew who he was might be surprising to some modern readers. Is it really true Ford wasn’t well-known at the time? When Ford was filming the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he was most known for his major roles in the original Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In addition, he had smaller roles in American Graffiti and Apocalypse Now. Return of the Jedi may have been released at this point. 

Clearly, Ford had several major roles under his belt but he hadn’t appeared in all of his most famous films. George Lucas and company had not yet released the other three films in the Indiana Jones franchise. The Star Wars sequel trilogy was decades away. Beyond the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Ford had prominent roles to come in movies like Working Girl, Patriot Games, and Air Force One. It’s safe to say Ford was not as much of an icon in 1984 as he would be in later years. Ford may not have been widely recognizable in the mid-1980s, but he is now — and women continued to scare him for decades to come.