Last year, Harrison Ford made headlines at the SAG Awards when he hilariously photobombed his Shrinking co-star Jessica Williams’ “I’m an Actor” monologue. But on Sunday night, at the newly renamed Actor’s Awards ceremony, the film icon stole the spotlight as he accepted SAG-AFTRA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
This is the latest award to honor Ford’s illustrious 60-year career, which has seen him play everything from smuggler-turned-hero Han Solo in Star Wars to adventurous archeology professor Indiana Jones, from CIA analyst Jack Ryan in Blade Runner to ex-cop (and possible replicant) Rick Deckard and even several U.S. presidents.
“I’m here to celebrate one of the greatest actors of all time, Leo DiCaprio,” Woody Harrelson joked as he took the stage to present the award to Ford during the ceremony, which was streamed live on Netflix. “You have more talent in your pinky finger than I have… in my pinky finger. Of all the actors in the world, you’re one of them. Everyone in the industry… knows about you.”
(For those wondering how Harrelson got involved in this introduction, he joked that Ford asked him to speak after his 1923 co-star Helen Mirren turned him down and former Vice President Kamala Harris was unable to attend. In fact, Harrelson and Ford are friends.)
“Harrison is a true Renaissance man, an iconic actor, a famous pilot, a master carpenter who built his own house. I don’t even know how to use a coffee machine, a French press,” Harrelson joked at the end of his long monologue. “There’s an indescribable energy that he brings to everything he does and every moment on screen. And this is just a glimpse of that gritty, haunting magnetism.”
After a clip reel of Ford’s iconic career played, he kissed his wife Calista Flockhart and took to the stage to give an emotional speech about what his acting career meant to him.
“I’m very grateful for this consideration, but frankly, I’m also very humbled. I’m in a room of actors, many of whom are here because they’re nominated to win awards for their amazing work,” Ford began, before quipping, “Well, I’m here to accept an award for being alive. It’s a little strange to receive a lifetime achievement award at half the point in my career. It’s a little early, right? I am.” He is still an active actor. ”
Although Ford is now one of the most successful actors in history, he stressed that success did not come overnight. “I struggled for about 15 years, going through acting, through carpentry, back into acting, and finally starring in a movie that was a huge success. This didn’t all happen on my own,” he said, adding that Star Wars visionary George Le The more I gave credit to Kass, Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg, the late casting director Fred Ruth and his longtime manager Patricia McQueen, the more gloomy I felt. “They’ve both been incredibly tenacious and supported me when I really needed it. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Ford got his start as an actor during his third year of college. “I was a little lost. I was a failure at school. I felt isolated and alone,” he recalled. “Then I found a tribe of people who put on plays, storytellers. People I once thought were sociopaths and nerds turned out to be my tribe.”
Through acting, Ford found his calling and identity in pretending to be someone else. “Working with other actors is one of the great joys of my life,” he said. My career is built not only on their work, but also on the work of the writers, directors, and every cast member and crew I’ve ever spent time with on set. ”
Through these collaborations, Ford explained, he was finally able to get to know himself and navigate the ups and downs of the entertainment business.
“As actors, we can live many lives. We can explore ideas that affirm and enhance our shared experiences. The stories we tell have the unique ability to create moments of emotional connection. They unite us,” Ford said. “In this room, we’re all at different stages in our lives and careers, but we all share something fundamental: We share the privilege of working in a world of ideas, empathy, and imagination. Sometimes we make entertainment, sometimes we make art, and sometimes we’re lucky, sometimes both at the same time. If we’re really lucky, we can even make a living doing it.”
As the crowd of A-listers looked on in awe, Mr. Ford concluded his speech by looking to the future. “Being successful in this business gives you a certain amount of freedom, but with it comes a responsibility to support each other,” he said. “To encourage others as much as I can, to keep the door open for the next child, the next lost child looking for a place to belong. I’m a really lucky guy. I’m lucky to have found my people, I’m lucky to have a rewarding job, and I’m still doing it. I don’t take that for granted.”
Ford becomes the 61st recipient of the Lifetime 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 received the Critics’ Choice Career Achievement Award (2024), Cannes Film Festival’s Honorary Palme d’Or (2023), BAFTA’s Albert R. Broccoli Britannia Award (2015), Golden Globe Award’s Cecil B. DeMille Award (2002), and the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award (2000).
Despite all the accolades, Ford is still celebrating some milestones. For example, he received his first Emmy nomination last year for his work on the Apple TV series “Shrinking,” where he played Dr. Paul Rose, an eccentric senior member of a Pasadena psychotherapy clinic diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Days after learning the news, Ford gave an interview to Variety magazine for a candid, career-spanning cover story, reflecting on his journey from his first on-screen role as a bellhop in 1966’s Dead Heat on a Carousel to becoming one of the highest-grossing movie stars of all time.
“I quickly realized that I loved telling stories. I loved dressing up and pretending to be someone else,” Ford said of falling in love with acting in college. “I really felt like no one was watching me. That was the first freedom I really felt, because I was able to hide behind the character.”
When asked if he might ever retire from the profession, Mr. Ford flatly answered “no.”
“One of the things I found fascinating about being an actor is that you need old people to play old people,” he says with his trademark dry humor.
