Harrison Ford has landed his first-ever Emmy nomination at age 83 for his appearance in the Apple TV+ comedy “Shrinking”.
In the show he plays Dr. Paul Rhoades, a blunt but endearing therapist and mentor. Created by Brett Goldstein, Jason Segel and Bill Lawrence, the series returned for a second season this year to rave reviews from critics and audiences.
With this nomination Ford becomes the second-oldest nominee ever in the supporting actor in a comedy category. Alan Arkin was 86 when he was nominated in 2020 for Netflix’s “The Kominsky Method.”
However this wasn’t veteran actor Ford’s only nomination as he is also up for his role as Jacob Dutton, the patriarch of the Dutton family, in Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ drama “1923”, which is a prequel to the five-season drama “Yellowstone”
Surprisingly up until now, his only major awards nomination has been for best actor at the 1985 Academy Awards for his performance in thriller “Witness.”
Best known for his roles as Han Solo in the “Star Wars” movies spanning 40 years, Deckard in two “Blade Runner” movies 35 years apart, he has also starred as Indiana Jones five times across four decades.
In an interview with Variety Magazine, Ford downplayed the nominated performance saying with dry humour “I say the words, do the work, rinse and repeat”.
“I’m grateful, but I would have done what I did — and I’ll do what I’m doing — regardless of whether it’s deemed worthy of mention or not. Because it’s what I do. It’s what I love doing. I love telling stories. I love pretending to be somebody else.”
He also revealed that TV has one big advantage over movies “We get more time to develop a character over a season than one normally does in a film.”
Ford’s character in Shrinking has Parkinson’s Disease, and this saw him working closely with guest star Michael J Fox who suffers from the condition in real life.
“Michael’s courage, his fortitude and his grace, more than anything else, is on full display. He’s very smart, very brave, noble, generous, passionate guy, and an example to all of us, whether we’re facing Parkinson’s or not. You cannot help but recognize how amazing it is to have such grace.”
When asked if he plans to retire anytime soon he replied “No. That’s one of the things I thought was attractive about the job of an actor, was that they need old people, too, to play old people’s parts.”
Shrinking co-star Jason Segel was full of praise for Ford saying “He could do an absolutely amazing job caring way less. This guy knows his moves, but he’s not content to do his moves. He’s creating a character from scratch.”
The 77th Emmy Awards will be broadcast live on Sunday, September 14th.
