Harrison Ford might be more well-known as a bit of a grump nowadays, but the 77-year-old actor is still as tough as ever. The star remains as active as ever, as evidenced by his surprisingly intimidating shirtless scene in his latest film, The Call of the Wild. Though he’s tight-lipped about most of his personal life, Ford’s shared a bit about how he manages to stay fit in the face of age and (surprisingly numerous) injuries.
Harrison Ford doesn’t need CGI abs
The Indiana Jones icon remains active, telling Parade in a recent interview that he works out at least three times a week. Ford typically bikes or plays tennis in addition to some weightlifting, all of which come with some risk of injury for someone his age. To fight against the threat of a possible tweak or strain, he focuses on flexibility and stretching. At the time of the interview, he even shared that he was in the process of recovering from a sore shoulder but still wanted to sharpen up his tennis serve before the year’s end.
In an interview with USA Today, the veteran actor shook off the question of whether or not his shirtless scene in Call of the Wild was digitally touched-up after the fact. “I was fit and it was very cold water,” Harrison Ford explained. “I’m healthy, I enjoy being active and fit. I’m aware of keeping my old (butt) in shape.”
He’s had his fair share of injuries, though
Ford briefly recounted his interviews in a GQ profile in 2017, telling writer Chris Heath that he’d had some trouble with his ankles. “This one got dislocated forward when they closed a hydraulic door on me,” Ford explained. “This one got dislocated backward when…uh…the plane crashed.”
The actor is a known aviation fanatic, which isn’t too uncommon a hobby for A-listers. Unfortunately, he’s also known for a few aerial mishaps. When he was 72, his small plane lost power and forced Ford to crash land on a golf course. While he was praised for his skill in crash landing, it was still a crash. Ford shattered his pelvis and ankle, broke one of his vertebrae, and suffered a cut on his head.
The injuries came roughly a year after his arguably worst on-set injury. While filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2014, the aforementioned hydraulic door malfunctioned and came down on Harrison Ford’s leg, dislocating his ankle, breaking both bones in his leg, and forcing him off-set for a few weeks while he recovered. The actor ultimately bounced back and soon cracked wise about it. “They closed a [expletive] door on me!” he jokingly told Jimmy Fallon. “JJ [Abrams] did it!” From the looks of it, it seems like he’s stronger than ever, even after all of his injuries.
“It turned out well,” Ford said to Jonathan Ross after recounting the injury. “I count myself as a lucky guy.”