He is a modest and moved man who agreed to confide in 20 minutes. With his astonishing black socks (he was renowned for more colorful choices) and his cold humor (he pretends to kick in touch before opening his heart), this tall gentleman of 80 springs returned to the Palme d’Or d honor received just before the screening ofIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny by James Mangold, Thursday evening at Cannes. The next day his voice broke again to describe this experience as “indescribable”.
Why were you so moved when you received the Palme d’or d’honneur?
You wouldn’t have been, would you? It reminded me of so many things and then I felt so much love from the audience that it moved me so much more than I could have imagined. This evening, this festival and this film mark an end for me. I couldn’t imagine a better conclusion.
What reason made you want to end the Indiana Jones saga?
You laugh ? You have it in front of you, reason and I have it every morning in front of my mirror. I am old and this is not a problem for me. I love old age because I’m not afraid of it. I was happy when I was young and I am now that I am old! There is not a penny of nostalgia in me.
Saying “goodbye” to Indy, doesn’t that make you sad?
I don’t say “goodbye” to Indiana Jones, I say “goodbye” to him, which doesn’t make me sad since I do it according to my own agenda. I had very specific ideas about what I wanted. I wanted the viewer to see what this brightly youthful man has become in his middle age where he has lost so much.
I wanted his age to be tackled head-on without it becoming a source of vulgar or facile humor. Indiana Jones has become fragile. That’s why Indy in his underwear at the very beginning of the film. He shows himself as a turtle without a shell, before rebuilding himself for the last time thanks to a woman he never expected to meet.
Why did you choose to meet a strong young woman in Indiana Jones?
There have always been some in the movies, if only the one played by Karen Allen in the first and fourth installments. The one played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge makes Indy experience a different relationship with a woman, a relationship that is not based on a physical attraction that their age difference would have made inappropriate. The relationship between the two characters makes it possible to offer beautiful moments of emotion in the film, more than in the previous ones. Director James Mangold was able to bring them to life in the heart of the action.
Did you feel so emotional when you said “goodbye” to the character of Han Solo, one of the heroes of “Star Wars”?
I could tell you yes and make up a lot of bullshit to justify my answer, but I’d rather let you make it up yourself. Being an actor is a job for me. I don’t follow my characters and I don’t intellectualize my roles. I fell at the right time on roles which corresponded to me and which pleased the public.
We parted when it was time, which allows me to keep beautiful memories while continuing on something else like the series Shrinking. I’m lucky to still be able to work at my age. I still love my job so much.
Do you have a hero who inspired you as much as Indiana Jones made his fans dream?
Not really because I never went to the cinema much. And I still don’t go there very often. If I had to name something that stood out to me on the big screen, it would be a movie: Of silence and shadows by Robert Mulligan. It was by letting myself be carried away by this work which evokes Good and Evil that I understood the strength of cinema. It gives us incredible power to defend ideas.
Now, more than ever, it brings people together in a common experience as the world is increasingly torn apart by the pursuit of profit. Its unifying side is one of the things that makes it wonderful.