Harrison Ford’s rise to stardom reportedly came with early rejection.
In a recent Variety interview, the Indiana Jones star opened up about a crushing moment in the 1960s, when he was a young actor earning just $150 a week under contract with Columbia Pictures.
This could have been a major snub that could’ve ended his career before it even began.
After landing his first on-screen appearance in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, the iconic actor was summoned to the office of the studio’s head of new talent, expecting praise or at least a nudge of encouragement.
However, he was flatly told he had “no future in the business.”
He even recalled how the executive even pushed him to ditch his name and get a trendier look.
“He wanted me to change my name. He thought that Harrison Ford was too pretentious a name for a young man, and then he asked me to get my hair cut like Elvis Presley,” the actor told the outlet and remarked, “That I didn’t go along with.”
He added, “I lasted about a year and a half of a seven-year contract.”
Now, years later when Harrison had become a household name thanks to Star Wars, Blade Runner, and Indiana Jones, he ran into the same executive again.
“I met him later across a crowded room,” he shared and recounted, “He had sent me a card on which he had written, ‘I missed my guess.’ And I looked around and couldn’t remember which one he was, but then he nodded at me and smiled, and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, I know you.’”
