EXTRA! Harrison Ford

Our CBS Sunday morning podcast is sponsored by Edward Jones. College tours with your oldest daughter. Updating the kitchen to the appropriate decade.

Retiring on the coast. Life is full of moments that matter, and Edward Jones helps you make the most of them. That's why every Edward Jones financial advisor works with you to build personalized strategies for now and down the road. So when your next moment arrives, big or small, you're ready for it.

Life is for living. Let's partner for all of it. Learn more at edwardjones.com. Hi, I'm Jane Pauley, and this is our Sunday Morning Extra, our podcast featuring a memorable story from our most recent show.

It's a conversation that offers insights beyond the broadcast. This weekend, Lee Cowan is spending time with Harrison Ford, the actor many of us know as Han Solo. Han Solo.

I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Or Indiana Jones. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? Or Jack Ryan.

I am telling you, I want back in. At 77, he's still at the top of his game, and a leading man extraordinaire. Case in point, his latest performance in the new movie based on Jack London's famed book, The Call of the Wild. Here's their conversation.

So what was it? I know you said before that there's always got to be, for you anyway, some kind of emotional connection with the character for you to take it. Well, there's a real strong emotional connection with the character because of his relationship with Buck. This is a character that in the book is not very fleshed out. He comes into the story without any background or history. And he really functions just to change the plot for Buck. And they establish a complicated relationship, I think. But the complication is that while Buck is is hearing The Call of the Wild, John Thornton is finding, through his relationship with Buck, the potential and the courage to go back and face his life, which is not in the wild. And it was that, that's what drew you to the part, you think? Well, the potential for that relationship drew me to it. I know CGI obviously is no stranger to you.

How do you do it when it's the protagonist? Was there something there for you to play opposite for Buck? Yeah, yeah, there was. There was an actor named Terry Notary, who's a former Cirque de Soleil gymnast. And that part's important because he was able to move like a dog. Really?

Dogs move with left and right, foot forward, rear foot forward forwards, and they have that gait. It's not so much that he could imitate a dog, but he gave us a reference for our eye lines. He gave me someone to establish an emotional relationship with. Because you have to have that, right? You have to have something to work off of. I mean, I'm used to pretending. That's the job of acting is pretending.

And so I was pretending that Terry Notary was a dog, but there was something there. It was fun. It was really fun to do. I'm just a little strange. I'm rolling around on the floor with this guy and scratching his tummy. Were you physically doing that with him? Because you had to, I guess, right? There was money involved.

There's a line in the movie where you and Buck are, I can't remember exactly where you are, but you say something really defective. You know, we're just temporary and we're all gone and this will all still be here as you're looking over that big vista. Yeah, because nature doesn't need people. People need nature. And we're in danger of losing the support of nature for our lives, for our economies, for our societies. And happily, it's a topic that's now reached the highest levels of politics and people are beginning to talk about it as though it were the pressing issue of our times. I'm now seeing that I think we're coming close to being able to really commit the resources and energy to confronting the issue because it's taken up on the highest level of politics.

It's taken up on the streets by young people. Well, that's the thing. It's a generational thing now, right? They're looking at us like this is our fault in a lot of ways, that we screwed this up. Well, but we've got to bridge the generational gap to get it done.

And they, you know, they have every right to criticize us for our failure to actually act in time. This is a bottom line issue. Yeah, this is it.

This is it. You're a good Midwesterner. You don't really talk politics or religion much, but that's changed a wee bit of late. I think it's come to the point where we've got to start talking politics. We've got to talk about it in a positive way. We've got to regain the middle ground. We're in these ideological enclaves. And it's been purposeful to disaggregate us.

It's a commercial opportunity. If you coalesce groups, it's easier to service them with what they want to hear. And that's where we are. But the truth is in the middle. Science is in the middle. Coming together, purposeful, capable progress is made in the middle. Do you think we can get back there?

We damn well better. When you return to roles, whether it's on solo or Indiana Jones, what's the challenge for you in coming back to the same role years later? I'm trying not to look silly, you know, and running around in tight pants and high boots.

I'll give you a more appropriate answer. Considering that I'm going to start doing Indiana Jones in about two months. I'm always delighted to come back to these characters. They've proved the reason we have the opportunity to make another is because people have enjoyed them and they've got a following.

And I feel obliged to make sure that our efforts are as ambitious as they were when we started. It's almost a responsibility, I guess, in some ways. Yeah, you have a sense of responsibility to your customers. I think of the people that go to my movies as more as customers than I do as fans. Fans feels kind of weird to me, but always has. Always has, yeah.

But the fact that these people support my business and I'm responsible to them for the quality of the service that I offer, that feels better to me. Can you tell us anything about the new Indiana Jones? No. Why did they think that was going to be your answer? Yeah, well. But you're excited about doing it again?

I'm excited about doing it, yeah. When it comes to, you talked about this a little bit, but when it comes to those big action roles that you've done, you said that scale issue that you were talking about, you always have to get it down to something that's relatable. Well, I'm more interested in a character's state of mind in the midst of kinetic activity. So I want to be in close enough to see his fear, his triumph, his effort, his plan. I love to see little articulations that support the behavior, you know?

That stuff you have to be in fairly close to, which is a good reason for me to do it if I can, if it's not too dangerous. How's your ankles and your back and your pelvis and everything else that got hurt in the crash? Oh, I'm recovered. Are you? Yeah, I'm happy. I'm playing tennis as well as I ever did. I'm back riding my road bikes and I'm great.

And you're still flying? Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Wouldn't you, does it ever, does it enter your mind? How does that work? How does it work? Yeah. Well, first of all, it's a discipline and a skill that I invested a lot of time and energy in and I want to maintain my capacity. I love to fly. I love being up in the air. I love the experience of the third dimension. We're living in two dimensions down here. You get up there and you see, not from 35,000 feet, but from 3,000 feet.

It's spectacular. You're not a big fan of doing red carpets and interviews like this. Is it because you just don't like talking about yourself or is it because, what is it? Or is it just none of our business? How the craft works? It's just a different thing. This is a different thing. My job is different to what I'm doing right now. I mean, this is part of my job, but the part that gives me joy and challenges me and keeps me excited about doing it is not necessarily this particular part of it. I understand the utility of it and I think it's important to be able to bring people's attention to when you have a new product to release. So it's part of the business. It's part of the business. I think of the people that go to my movies more as customers than I do as fans. Fans feels kind of weird to me, but always has.

Always has, yeah. Always has, but I didn't really want to become an actor so that I could be rich and famous. That's not why I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be an actor because I wanted to tell stories. So I never thought, I never actually thought about being successful to the extent that I haven't been lucky enough to be. I thought I would, my highest ambition was to have regular work as an actor and not have to do something else to support myself and my family. That was the level of my ambition, to work with good people, but I never thought that I was a movie star type.

I never thought that I would have the opportunities, the success, the passion, the passion, the success that came along with other people's success, like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have brought into my life. Is the fame a burden? It can often be a disturbance to the progress of your thoughts, to your family time.

It can be a pain. But in most cases, people are just curious, or surprisingly, they're very generous and gracious. They just want to say, thanks for the experiences that I've had in theater with you. In the theater with you, and that, that feels good.