Harrison Ford fought back tears as he accepted the SAG-AFTRA Life Achievement Award on Sunday night at the newly renamed Actor Awards. The Indiana Jones actor delivered an emotional speech looking back at his six-decade career.
Presenting the award, Woody Harrelson added a touch of humour. “I’m here to celebrate one of the greatest actors of all time — Leo DiCaprio,” Harrelson joked. “You have more talent in your little finger … than I have in my little finger. Of all the actors in the world, you’re one of them. Everyone in the industry … knows you.”
“Harrison is a true Renaissance man, an iconic actor, a distinguished pilot and a master carpenter who built his own home. I don’t know how to work the coffee machine, and it’s a French press,” Harrelson added. “There’s an indescribable energy he brings to everything he does and every moment he’s on screen. And this is just a glimpse of that gritty, unforgettable magnetism”.
“I feel incredibly grateful for this kind attention, but to be clear, I’m also quite humbled. I’m in a room of actors, many of whom are here because they’ve been nominated to receive a prize for their amazing work,” Ford began his acceptance speech.
“Well, I’m here to receive a prize for being alive. It’s a little weird to be getting a Lifetime Achievement Award at the half point of my career. It’s a little early isn’t it? I’m still a working actor,” he quipped.
Ford, whose filmography ranges from Han Solo in Star Wars to archaeologist Indiana Jones, CIA analyst Jack Ryan and former cop Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, said his path to stardom was anything but immediate.
“I struggled for about 15 years, going from acting job, then carpentry and back to acting, until I finally got a part in a wildly successful film. None of this happened on my own,” he said.
The veteran actor credited Star Wars creator George Lucas and Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg, along with late casting director Fred Roos and longtime manager Patricia McQueeney.
“As actors, we get to live many lives. We get to explore ideas that affirm and elevate our shared experience. The stories we tell have a unique capacity to create moments of emotional connection. They bring us together,” Ford said.
“So while we’re all at different stages of our lives and careers in this room, we all share something fundamental: We share the privilege of working in the world of ideas, of empathy, of imagination. Sometimes we make entertainment. Sometimes we make art. Sometimes we’re lucky, we make them both at the same time, and if we’re really fortunate, we also get to make a living doing it,” he added.
“Success in this business brings a certain freedom that comes with the responsibility to support each other. To lift others up when we can; to keep the door open for the next kid — the next lost boy who’s looking for a place to belong. I’m indeed a lucky guy, lucky to have found my people, lucky to have work that challenges me, lucky to still be doing it. I don’t take that for granted,” he concluded.
