You know how Alec Baldwin has, consistently, thought he was the best of the best? Well, that apparently extends into Harrison Ford’s career. Back in the ’90s, after Ford and Baldwin had already worked together on the movie Working Girl (which Baldwin seems to have forgotten), there was a role they both took on: Jack Ryan. Baldwin first played him in The Hunt for Red October before Ford took over in Patriot Games and then Clear and Present Danger. And given that Baldwin was still complaining about it in the 21st century, it is safe to say he’s not over it.
This was part of his 2017 memoir Nevertheless and you might be wondering why this petty conversation is coming back around now, and the reality is … TikTok. As I was scrolling through my FYP, I saw a video from the Celebrity Memoir Book Club podcast talking about Baldwin’s words on Ford. And boy oh boy is it funny to see how angry Baldwin is that Ford took on the role of Jack Ryan.
When the sequel was moving forward, director John McTiernan (according to Baldwin) asked Ford if he knew that Paramount was still in negotiations for Baldwin to continue playing Ryan, and Baldwin claims that Ford replied, “F–k him.”
That’s not all, though. Baldwin said he met Ford at a benefit and described the 6’1″ actor (who is an inch taller than Baldwin) as follows: “Ford, in person, is a little man, short, scrawny, and wiry, whose soft voice sounds as if it’s coming from behind a door.” Now as someone who has, after years of loving his work, seen Harrison Ford in person, this is the funniest sh*t I’ve ever read.
Just say you’re a petty guy and move on!
Baldwin really thought insulting a man who has played countless iconic characters needed to be labeled as a guy who needed a franchise? “He was playing a different game. In the need of the next franchise to keep the flame of his stardom burning bright while earning him tens of millions more, what choice did he have? The carpenter who walked onto a set [Star Wars] and then into movie history knew that these roles were his legacy,” Baldwin wrote, and here’s the thing: I grew up with ’90s Ford, when the actor didn’t particularly have a “franchise” backing him. (Both the Jack Ryan movies he starred in were done by 1994.)
I grew up in the era of Air Force One and What Lies Beneath. I knew him as both Han Solo and Indiana Jones and a man who loves different genres. So Baldwin, having the hindsight of what Ford’s career was in the ’90s, still saying this? Hilarious. Also, calling a man taller than him short and scrawny? Even funnier.
Baldwin is constantly just showing how much of a petty man he is, and this is no different.
(featured image: Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
