The Big Problem Harrison Ford Had With His Role In Blade Runner
The behind-the-scenes stories of the making of Ridley Scott's futuristic thriller "Blade Runner" have become as iconic as the film they ultimately helped build. From Rutger Hauer's hair-raising final lines to a scene from "The Shining" saving the film's partial bacon, these moments thankfully weren't lost from time and led to one of the most influential science fiction films ever made. After Ridley Scott eventually called cut on "Blade Runner," however, there were still minor issues that the film's lead was unable to let go of, regardless of the eventual masterpiece he'd unknowingly been a part of.
In the 1982 film, Rick Deckard (Ford) is a Blade Runner, a detective assigned with tracking down escaped androids and terminating them if necessary. While it's undoubtedly one of Ford's most beloved performances, the man himself has often spoken out about having serious issues with his character, mainly one glaring oversight you'd deem essential for a gripping detective story.
Ford disapproved of Deckard's lack of detecting
In a 1999 interview with SFGate, Harrison Ford highlighted issues that he'd seemingly never let go of when it comes to one of the coolest characters he'd ever played. "I played a detective who did not have any detecting to do," Ford said. "In terms of how I related to the material, I found it very difficult. There was stuff that was going on that was really nuts."
In retrospect, he had a point. Besides snake scale tracking and excessive zooming on a photo, Deckard spends a lot of time either being beaten up or shooting down Replicants, appearing as more of a gun for hire than a detective on the case. Even so, it didn't hinder the film too much, keeping Ridley Scott's sci-fi a classic that few have tried to replicate themselves, that is, until Denis Villeneuve stepped in to direct its 2017 sequel, "Blade Runner 2049."