Harrison Ford, Ender’s Game interview

The Xtreme Entertainment Network caught up with the man and the legend that is Harrison Ford, an actor who is taking his return to sci-fi very seriously indeed. Disappointingly however, there was not a single whip or lightsabre in sight. Based upon the 1985 science fiction novel of the same name, Ender’s Game stars Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin, a gifted child sent to a military school to be trained in the art of warfare before earth is invaded by aliens. The all star cast features Harrison Ford and Sir Ben Kingsley as Colonel Graff and Mazer Rackham, the military trainers who hone Ender Wiggin into a fighting machine. But will they succeed? The future of the human race depends on them…

Harrison Ford gives us the low down on film, discussing the cinematic adaptation of the novel, the morals of sending children into war and how the development of CGI is changing sci-fi as we know it.

A quick Star Wars related question to get things started. Do you see any similarities between Han Solo and Colonel Graff?   Han and Graff are nothing alike. Graff is a very complex character who is charged with an awesome responsibility. He recruits and trains young Ender Wiggin and faces a lot of moral issues that are involved with using young people for warfare. The complex moral issues really are part of Graff’s story. The book deals with a lot of complex issues of social responsibility and the moral issues that one faces when one is part of the military establishment. I was just delighted to be involved in a film with such high ambition and such talented people. I think Graff is a much more complex character than Han Solo. That doesn’t mean that I regret Han Solo.

You’ve had great success in the sci-fi and action genre, but these films also talk about important moral and social issues. How do you think Ender’s Game will resonate with people who see this movie?   I think this movie is very pressing, and I think that the novel was very pressing. The morality of a society which raises a military that wages war, are the moral concerns of this film. They are something that we are now wrestling with daily, in our lives. The issue of inter-planetary warfare is the science fiction aspect of it, but what gives it such an emotional tone is that these are the concerns of our everyday lives now. Drone warfare and the capacity that we have technologically is one part of the moral package.

Not to mention the morals of sending a young child into war… Yes, that has always historically been the case. The youngest and fittest of our culture have always been the ones who were first in line for warfare. In the book, Ender Wiggin starts out at seven years of age. In this case, they wisely changed it to be a young person closer to matching Asa’s age of 12 or 13. The character that I play is responsible for manipulating young people, in service of some perceived need for humanity, as a whole. No matter how you try to wrestle with the questions of warfare and the military, the more you realize how complex these issues are and how much attention they deserve. It’s really important for us to visit these questions, not only in the daily news, but also in our emotional and civic lives.

What was it like to work with Sir Ben Kingsley?   It was great. Despite his moniker, there is a real guy there who I vastly enjoyed working with. I had known him before, but the pleasure of working with him, as an actor, was a real treat, as was working with the young people who dedicated and devoted themselves to the telling of this story, and who also possess a surprising understanding of the craft. It was surprising to me, for their ages. They are enormously talented young people. I give credit to them, and I was delighted to be involved.

How was your relationship with Asa? Was it true you distanced yourself from him off screen so the on-screen relationship worked?   He understood it perfectly, we both had responsibility to the roles. My character is a mentor and emulator, Asa saw through Ender’s eyes the obstacles he had to get through. When I’m acting in a role, I’m not interested in deciding for myself whether he’s a good guy or bad guy, he is charged with a responsibility fictionally and being able to play the part, so Asa and I had a distance off screen. All of the kids through a bootcamp – there were drill instructors to teach them marching and all of the military behaviors for them to replicate on screen. Asa understood I was there purposely to keep at a distance.

You’re obviously a man who has worked in this genre for many years, so you’ve seen CGI grow and change. What are the fundamental differences that you saw, working now on Ender’s Game, that maybe you didn’t see, back in the late 70s and early 80s?   Well, in the olden days, when I was there, we had sort of horse-drawn effects. You know, you put bits together, and then you made a physical prop. Now you create it in a computer – that’s basically the difference. Both methods work, but computer graphic perhaps allows you a little bit more latitude. One of the best things about science fiction is the bandwidth of the imagination that you can use. I mean, a realistic film, on earth, only has a certain visual, a certain potential. Once you get into the future, it broadens. You can imagine things. And this book did imagine, twenty-eight years ago, things like the internet, touch-screen technology, drone warfare, all of which is now a part of our lives, for better or for worse. So there’s a lot of wisdom and understanding in the book, and, potentially, we’ve captured quite a bit of it.

Mark Pilkington