Harrison Ford Turned Down Cape Fear Because He Couldn't Get The Role He Wanted

Static Media

It's often repeated that Harrison Ford hates "Star Wars" and Han Solo, the movie and role that made him a star. Ford himself leans into this, such as when he destroyed a Han Solo action figure on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." 

Even while first filming the original 1977 "Star Wars," Ford wasn't the biggest fan of George Lucas' script: He memorably exclaimed "George! You can type this s***, but you sure can't say it!" Granted, it seems less that Ford despises "Star Wars" and more that he's just unsentimental about it. For him, playing Han Solo was just a successful gig, nothing more, and he's frustrated by the superfans who insist on always beating the dead tauntaun. 

That unsentimental approach showed itself in his comments about being in "Star Wars" to Vanity Fair: "'Star Wars' was a big success, so I was happy to come back and play Han Solo again, and again — but that was enough. I thought that he had reached his potential, therefore [he] could serve the story by dying."

Ford also wasn't out to be a movie star — acting is a job for him, so he doesn't revere many of his famous roles, from Han Solo to Rick Deckard in "Blade Runner," the way his fans do. If he found playing Han Solo dull by "Return of the Jedi" (and you can see that plainly onscreen), he probably would've been frustrated by his typecasting as an action star.

Ford tried (and failed) to break that typecasting with Martin Scorsese's 1991 movie "Cape Fear." That film, a remake of a 1962 Gregory Peck/Robert Mitchum thriller, follows lawyer Sam Bowden (ultimately played by Nick Nolte). Bowden and his family are harassed by Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a sadistic criminal who Bowden helped put away years earlier for rape. (Bowden was actually Cady's defense attorney, but was so convinced of his client's guilt, he sabotaged the defense.) 

In a 1997 interview with The Irish Times, Ford mentioned that De Niro asked him to play the part of Bowden. Ford, though, was only interested if he could play Cady. De Niro didn't want to give up the part, so Ford didn't do the movie.

The Saul Zaentz Company

A similar story can be found in "The Hunt for Red October." That film, adapted from the Tom Clancy novel, centers on CIA Agent Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin). When the titular Soviet submarine goes off course, Ryan suspects its captain, Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), is planning to defect to the United States. Ford would replace Baldwin as Jack Ryan in the two follow-up films, "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger." However, the producers had offered him the part to begin with on "Red October." Ford instead wanted to play Ramius, which he felt was the more interesting part.

These stories suggest an actor who wanted to experiment with his roles. Sam Bowden in "Cape Fear" would not offer that. The character is similar to other ones Ford played and would play through the 1990s, like Rusty Sabich in "Presumed Innocent," Richard Kimble in "The Fugitive," and even President James Marshall in "Air Force One": All likable, upper-class men out to defend their families.

Further proof is Ford's favorite movie role that he's done: Peter Weir's "The Mosquito Coast," because on that one he did get to break typecasting. Ford played Allie Fox, a self-righteous inventor who thinks a nuclear doomsday is inevitable, so he moves his family to the South American jungles to restart civilization in his image. (A friend of mine has called Fox a proto-Walter White from "Breaking Bad," i.e. a self-centered genius who leads his family to ruin while trying to "protect" them.)

Now in his 80s, Ford has been roped back for nostalgia movies like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." He also, though, has been pushing himself in smaller projects like Apple TV dramedy series "Shrinking."

Decades after "Cape Fear," Ford still hasn't worked with Scorsese, a director who could've pushed him to places he's never gone before as an actor. Just look at how Scorsese turned Leonardo DiCaprio into the repellent schmuck Ernest Burkhart in "Killers of the Flower Moon." Both Ford and Scorsese are still with us, so we can still dream that a collaboration could happen one day.