Harrison Ford Talks Plane Crash and 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
— -- "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" welcomed Harrison Ford Thursday, and while Kimmel spent the “Star Wars”-themed episode dressed as Princess Leia -- hair buns and all -- the on-screen Han Solo seemed quite comfortable in another costume.
"I'm a dog in a hot dog suit," the actor deadpanned, rubber pooch nose wiggling. "What are you?"
"I'm your lover," Kimmel said. "You don't remember me from the '70s? We had quite a thing."
Ford turned around in mock disgust, and spoke to Guillermo, who was dressed as Yoda, even correcting his "I am Yoda" to a more appropriate, "Yoda, you are."
Despite the silly costumes, Kimmel tried to get serious, saying, "I'm glad to see you alive. You were in a plane crash; do you remember?"
"The engine stopping; I remember that part very well," Ford said, laughing. "And then I remember telling the tower what I was going to do," which was ignore the tower's instructions to land at the airport.
Knowing he couldn't make it, Ford ditched the plane at a nearby golf course, a move that many agree saved lives on the ground.
The exchange with the tower, "… was the last thing I remember until five days afterward, actually," Ford said, explaining he had no memory of the crash itself.
"I'm told by the doctors that the amount of general anesthetic that ... I got induced a retrograde amnesia."
Kimmel responded that people usually associate amnesia with something that happens only in movies. "This was not a movie," Ford joked.
"Do you yell, 'Fore,' as you come down?" Jimmy joked.
"'FORD!'" the actor corrected.
Speaking of disguises, Ford let his canine alter-ego "speak" for him when asked any details about "The Force Awakens." "Woof!" was how he responded to trolling questions from Kimmel, with the actor confirming emphatically he was told not to reveal anything.
"What is there to say?" he vented.
"I want the audience to experience it," Ford said. "I don't want them to hear it."
So secretive was the production that Ford's on-set leg break was covered up by London cops, Kimmel revealed, which earned another "Woof."
The police report noted that a 71-year-old man was injured by a garage door but, in reality, Ford was hurt by something from that galaxy far, far away.
“It was the door to the Millennium Falcon, yes,” he said.
Ford appeared to get increasingly comfortable as the interview continued, maybe too much so, as he burped while talking about his desire to have Han Solo killed off during the original “Star Wars” trilogy.
Ford said back then, he asked the writers to kill him off because he wasn't complexly associated with The Force. "I thought it would be good ... if the character, if he sacrificed himself."
He's happy they didn't listen to him, he said.
Also, Ford said, "There's a very good reason" when asked why Luke Skywalker isn't on the movie's official poster, though he is slated to be featured. But he couldn't say why.
The onscreen hero also used Indiana Jones' catchphrase "Trust me," to endorse “The Force Awakens.”
"I can tell you this: It's really, really good ... The new cast; Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac are phenomenal. J.J. [Abrams] has made an incredible movie. You will not be disappointed at all."
Incidentally, Kimmel revealed that on Nov. 23, he'll air a special "The Force Awakens" episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" featuring the cast.
The movie, which hits theaters Dec. 18, will be released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
