Last year, Harrison Ford stole the show at the SAG Awards by hilariously photobombing his “Shrinking” co-star Jessica Williams’ “I Am an Actor” monologue. But on Sunday night, at the newly-renamed Actor Awards ceremony, the cinema icon had the spotlight all to himself as he accepted the SAG-AFTRA’s Life Achievement Award.
It’s the latest prize celebrating Ford’s illustrious six-decade career, where he’s played everyone from smuggler turned hero Han Solo in “Star Wars” to the adventurous archeology professor Indiana Jones, as well as CIA analyst Jack Ryan to former cop (and maybe-replicant) Rick Deckard in the “Blade Runner” movies, plus a couple of U.S. presidents.
“I’m here to celebrate one of the greatest actors of all time — Leo DiCaprio,” Woody Harrelson joked, taking the stage to present Ford with the award during the ceremony, which streamed live on Netflix. “You have more talent in your little finger … than I have in my little finger. Of all the actors in the world, you’re one of them. Everyone in the industry … knows you.”
(If you’re wondering how Harrelson got roped into this introduction, Harrelson joked that Ford asked him to present after his “1923” co-star Helen Mirren turned him down and former Vice President Kamala Harris was unavailable. In truth, Harrelson and Ford are friends.)
“Harrison is a true Renaissance man, an iconic actor, a distinguished pilot and a master carpenter who built his own home. I don’t know how to work the coffee machine, and it’s a French press,” Harrelson joked at the end of his lengthy monologue. “There’s an indescribable energy he brings to everything he does and every moment he’s on screen. And this is just a glimpse of that gritty, unforgettable magnetism.”
After a clip reel of Ford’s iconic career, the actor took the stage to deliver an emotional speech about what his acting career has meant to him.
“I feel incredibly grateful for this kind attention, but to be clear, I’m also quite humbled. I’m in a room of actors, many of whom are here because they’ve been nominated to receive a prize for their amazing work,” Ford began. “Well, I’m here to receive a prize for being alive.”
Ford is the 61st recipient of the Life Achievement Award, joining a lineup of entertainment luminaries including Mary Tyler Moore, Sidney Poitier, Betty White, Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones.
Ford has previously won the Critics Choice Career Achievement Award (2024), an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (2023), BAFTA’s Albert R. Broccoli Britannia Award (2015), the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille award (2002) and the AFI Life Achievement Award (2000).
even with all the accolades, Ford is still celebrating some milestones; for example, he was nominated for his first Emmy last year for his work on the Apple TV series “Shrinking,” where he plays Dr. Paul Rhoades, the eccentric senior member of a psychotherapy practice in Pasadena, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Days after learning the news, Ford sat down with Variety for a candid, career-spanning cover story, where he reflected on everything from his first on-screen role — playing a bellboy in 1966’s “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round” — to becoming one of the highest-grossing movie stars in history.
“I quickly recognized that I loved telling stories. I liked dressing up and pretending to be somebody else,” Ford said about falling in love with acting in college. “It made me feel truly unseen. Because I was able to hide behind the character, and that was the first freedom I really felt.”
More to come…
Source: variety.com
