My last regular writing gig was for a site I co-founded called Red Carpet Crash, in 2009. In the three years I wrote for the site as its editor, I did hundreds of interviews, but the one I enjoyed the most was in the environment I liked the least: the roundtable junket.

When you were deemed worthy to ask questions of a guest, but had too low of an audience for the studio to grant you a one-on-one interview, you’re put in a room with a dozen or so writers for an hour to ask questions in a round-robin fashion.

This was the case when CBS Studios brought Harrison Ford through Dallas for an advance screening of EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES, based on the search for a treatment for Pompe Disease and one parent’s fight to bring that treatment to fruition. Ford played Dr. Robert Stonehill, an antisocial professor who has a breakthrough theory on fighting Pompe’s effects but no way to fund his research. (The movie was likable enough, but was not well-received — hence its January release date.)

Ford was brought in to the hotel ballroom where we scribes were set up, and seemed over the whole thing before it began. (This is no knock on Harrison at all — junkets can be murder, and you can find multiple examples of actors and directors who are worn out from answering the same questions ad nauseum in multiple cities on the tour.) However, I got the first real reaction out of him that wasn’t a monotone, rote answer, and for the briefest moment, we connected on something resembling a human level.

Thankfully, even though the site’s current owners didn’t back up ANY of the material when they decided to redo the design, I was able to find the brief conversation with Ford:

DP: When you were developing the character, working on the script, [Stonehill] is not just irascible. He’s downright prickly, and antisocial to a fault, which goes against the characters you’ve been able to play over the course of your career –

Ford: A-ha! [laughs]

DP: — did you have more fun digging into this character because he wasn’t affable?

Ford: No, not more fun, just different fun. Variety is the spice of life. While I am known for… Listen. Everyone is known for the things that are the most commerically successful, but I have done a variety of kinds of films, and played a variety of characters over the years. You need to refresh people’s expectations every once in a while, and don’t meet them halfway. But, if you’ve got some story to tell that’s got some passion and energy, and will serve them a bit of emotional exercise, they’ll go a little bit of the way to meet you.

DP: When you’re looking through scripts in between projects, is there a certain genre you’d like to go back to? For example, looking over your filmography, “The Frisco Kid” stands out as one of the few Westerns you’ve ever done. Is that something you’d like to go back to and revisit?

Ford: …make another Jewish movie?

DP: Well, Roger Ebert did say that movie was the best ways to teach children about Chanukah.

Ford: Yeah, I saw that.

DP: The point is, is there a certain film style, or genre, you’d like to go back to, or something you have yet to do?

Ford: No, I don’t think that way. Of course, I want to be useful in a number of different genres. So, I determine not to stick to one genre. In fact, I have a comedy coming out in July [“Morning Glory”], directed by Roger Michell, who’s a very talented British director, with Rachel McAdams, who is fantatsic, and Diane Keaton. It’s a comedy, and a really good movie. I’m really happy about that. I’m starting a thriller in a couple of months. So, y’know, I’m still workin’. [laughs] But, I’m not “genre-focused.” I’m “good movie-focused.”