“Octogenarians in Hollywood: Harrison Ford and other legends still making films with success”

Retirement just isn’t on the cards for some Hollywood stars. A bunch of octagenarian actors he is still making films, and with remarkable success. Harrison Ford (80) is the standard bearer of that batch. The actor is ahead of the premiere of the fifth installment of the saga Indiana Jonesand two series that have him as the protagonist: “1923”, the prequel to “Yellowstone” on Paramount+, and “Shrinking”, where he plays a therapist.

Despite the fact that age discrimination abounds in Hollywood, the glories of cinema managed to prove that they have a notable audience and prestige, and that they can be the jewels in the crown in a varied cast. That is the formula of “1923”, which brings together the legends Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren (77); but also from “Hunters” (Prime Video) with Al Pacino (83); “Star Trek. Picard” con Patrick Stewart (82); “The Kominsky Method” with Alan Arkin (90); o “Grace & Frankie”, con Jane Fonda (85) y Lily Tomlin (83), who have just released a film with Rita Moreno (91) and Sally Field (76).

Return

Having worked on just five projects between 2017 and 2022, Harrison Ford now has five releases ahead of him, including the highly anticipated “Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny”, a film directed by James Mangold, and in which artificial intelligence techniques were applied to rejuvenate him to the same age he was in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

“Ford is an incredibly gifted and agile actor, it was easy for him to pretend he was 35 years old,” said Mangold, who thanks to technology could see the application of a younger face Simultaneously with the shooting. So Ford leaps from the epic western of “1923” to the fast-paced adventure of “Indiana Jones” and from there to the comedy in “Shrinking,” from creators Brett Goldstein and Bill Lawrence.

On the show, Jason Segel plays a therapist dealing with his own personal problems, including the unexpected death of his wife. And Ford his boss and mentor. “I wasn’t ready for anything more than no when we went to see Ford with Brett, so I we panicked a little when he told us ‘I really like the script,’” Lawrence recounted.

“Ford asked us, ‘I’m not into the pilot much. Am I much in the next one?’. I was like: ‘You’re in whatever you want to be. You could be in every scene if you want.’ He was so kind… Speaking of inspiration, jumping from one project to another”Goldstein pointed out. “I liked the writing. I liked the character. I liked the intention. I liked the combination of pathos and comedy. I liked being able to try something different”, concluded Ford to whom the critics applauded.

Godfather

They say that Ford owes his long career precisely to Al Pacino. “They gave me a Star Wars script and offered me a lot of money… I read it, but I didn’t understand it. So I said I couldn’t do it. Give Harrison Ford a careerthe 82-year-old actor joked recently in an interview with Variety. The decision not to accept the role of Han Solo was not a bad one: he earned a reputation as one of the most influential actors in the world, playing some of the most enduring roles in cinema, including Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” Tony Montana in “Scarface,” Vincent Hanna in “Heat” and more.

And the Oscar winner, still shows no signs of slowing down in his careerwith at least four projects to come, and the recent premiere of the second season of “Hunters” on Prime Video, where he returned as Meyer Offerman, the investigator leading a group of Nazi hunters in New York at the end of the 1950s. 70, who discover that members of the SS (Hitler’s CIA) live in the Big Apple where they plan the creation of the Fourth Reich.

And Pacino is about to play the Italian painter Amadeo Modigliani in a movie that will have Johnny depp directing. “I am incredibly honored to bring his life to the screen. He went through great difficulties, but in the end he succeeded, a universal story. And it is a luxury to have Pacino as the lead,” Depp said.

Matriarchy

Six decades after her breakthrough debut on the American television variety show “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” Lily Tomlin (83), the Detroit-born comedian, waves the flag for older actresses in Hollywood alongside Jane Fonda (85), with whom she shared a cast in the Netflix series “Frankie and Grace”, and shares the poster with Rita Moreno (91, Anita in the classic “West Side Story”) and Sally Field (76) in “80 for Brady”, where they play a group of ladies who are fans of the American football legend willing to follow him until his last SuperBowl.

Tomlin, who won a Grammy, six Emmys and two Tonys, has become the engine of a generation of actresses who have returned to the small and big screen to show that they are not only for roles of grandmothers in a Hollywood “revolution of the old” which also includes Julie Andrews (87).

The British actress, winner of an Oscar, six Golden Globes and three Grammys, remembered for the roles of Mary Poppins in the 1964 film, Maria in “The Sound of Music” and Queen Clarisse Renaldi in “The Princess Diaries”, worked recently as commentator for Netflix for the series “Bridgerton”: is the voiceover of Lady Whistledown.

by RN

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