‘De-aging’ technology is used to make actor, 80, appear as a younger version of the action hero in series’ fifth instalment
Harrison Ford has been digitally “de-aged” for his latest, and final, outing in the Indiana Jones film series.
Playing the role for the first time as an octogenarian, technology has been used to give the veteran actor a more youthful appearance for the film’s prologue, set in 1944, when he appears as a younger version of the action hero.
Ford, who turned 80 in July, also tried on his 1981 costume from Raiders of the Lost Ark and was gratified that he was still svelte enough to fit into it.
Frank Marshall, the film’s producer, said: “I think his proudest moment was when he fit in those pants.”
Ford told Empire magazine that the film was “full of adventure, full of laughs, full of real emotion. And it’s complex and it’s sneaky. The shooting of it was tough and long and arduous. But I’m very happy with the film that we have”.
This is not the first time stars have been digitally de-aged for films to turn back the clock.
One notable example was 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt underwent a series of digital transformations to play a man who aged through time backwards.
The technique was also used to de-age Robert Downey Jr to the image of his younger self in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
This year, Bruce Willis became the first star to sell his digital image altogether, enabling a technology company to create films using a CGI version of his face.
‘A hero at sunset’
James Mangold, the director of the new Indiana Jones film, said it was important that Ford’s last outing as the character focused on the hero’s age.
“It became really important to me to figure out how to make this a movie about a hero at sunset,” he said.
“The issues I brought up about Indy’s age were not things I thought were being addressed in the material being developed at the time. There were ‘old’ jokes, but the material wasn’t about it.
“To me, whatever your greatest liability, you should fly straight towards that. If you try to pretend it’s not there, you end up getting slings and arrows the whole way.”
The untitled fifth instalment will see Ford reprising the iconic role and will feature Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve, as his goddaughter, Helena.
Waller-Bridge told Empire that upon hearing of the role, “I immediately ordered 10 bottles of wine”.
She added: “Then it was the fastest I’ve ever read a script. I came out of a sort of haze afterwards. I just couldn’t believe how much fun I had and how moved I was by it. And then I had a Zoom and screamed, ‘Yes!’ at them all.”
Last week, The Mail on Sunday reported that Waller-Bridge was under consideration to replace Ford as the lead in the action series following his departure, although Mangold denied this and said Ford will never be replaced.
“No one will ever replace Indiana Jones. Not in any script. Not in any cut. Never discussed,” he said on social media.
