Harrison Ford battled severe depression during his college years.
The “Star Wars” icon recalled on Thursday’s episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast “Awards Chatter” that he “rarely stepped out” from his private room at Ripon College in Wisconsin.
“I got up from my single bed, went to the phone, ordered a pizza, came back and lay in bed until the pizza arrived,” Ford said.
“I eat pizza, throw the wrapping paper in the corner, and go back to sleep.”
The 83-year-old said that on “rare occasions” he would “touch the outside door of the building, turn around and walk back.”
“I think I was more sick than depressed,” Ford admitted. “I wasn’t doing well socially or mentally.”
Ford explained that she “didn’t find a community” in college until she took a drama class to improve her low GPA.
However, Ford did not know that the class included not only reading and analyzing plays, but also acting in them. It was his first theatrical experience.
“And I was surprised to find out that the people I thought were fellow nerds and sociopaths were actually some of the most interesting people I know,” Ford said.
“They were doing things that I didn’t quite understand. They were telling stories about life and life, and those stories about life were informative, and some of them were extraordinary in their ability to understand human behavior,” the “Shrinking” star continued.
Ford said the drama class finally made her feel like she belonged.
“I think I just found my place among storytellers,” he said. “This story gave me focus and an opportunity to think about something and participate in it with a group of people.”
He further added, “It really changed my world and changed my life.”
Ford studied philosophy in college, but was expelled four days before graduation for plagiarism.
“I didn’t have enough control over whose words I used in my senior thesis,” he explained on the podcast. “Then I was accused and admitted that there was plagiarism.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Ford said he wouldn’t have had the career he did without early projects like American Graffiti, The Conversation and the original Star Wars.
“I was able to play the lead role because the movie I was in was successful, and that success guided me,” he explained.
“And that’s what kept me going, but a big part of that success was just being in the right place at the right time, luck, and persistence,” Ford concluded.
