Jeffrey Wright said Harrison Ford inadvertently taught him a lesson in respect more than three decades ago that still sticks.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the “American Fiction” star recalled working with Ford for the 1990 film “Presumed Innocent.”
It was Wright’s first major film. He had a small role, and barely a penny in his pocket, he said, and “I had no idea what I was doing.”
Ford, the star, was at the peak of his career, yet “he was so wonderful. He was so, so gracious,” Wright recalled.
There was one particular moment that stood out to Wright. During rehearsals one day, director Alan Pakula shouted out to Ford from the other side of the set.
Harrison replied: “Sir?”
“It was like, whoa. This is not like the fun and games that I expected. This is not like, loosen the pants. There’s a level of respect and a level of decorum that he’s showing here to this man and to the process,” Wright told Jimmy Kimmel. “And it really, it really stayed with me.”
Kimmel said it was a great lesson.
“If Han Solo can say ‘sir,’ so can everyone else,” he quipped.
“Exactly,” replied Wright.
He said he had seen Ford at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, and his kids got an opportunity to meet the legendary actor.
When he told Ford about that moment and what it meant to him, the actor didn’t remember it, but “he was kind of touched by it,” Wright said.
Watch his interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” below.
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