When Harrison Ford almost worked with Jacques Demy: “The film would make no money if he was cast!”

Posted On September 19, 2024September 19, 2024

For some Hollywood stars, getting started wasn’t the easiest of tasks. Harrison Ford, who became well-known for roles in movies like Star Wars, Blade Runner and the Indiana Jones franchise, attempted to get his career off the ground in the 1960s to little success.

He starred in many minor roles on screen after exploring theatre as a way to gain confidence. Many producers expressed little faith in his abilities, however, and he was often uncredited. Later, Harrison received his first credit in 1967 for A Time for Killing, although it took a while for him to be considered for any significant role. Ford was eventually cast in American Graffiti and The Conversation during the early 1970s, which were early signs of a career that would take him incredibly far. 

By the end of the 1970s, he was a star. Ford had landed himself one of the main roles in Star Wars as Han Solo, and the movie became a worldwide phenomenon. It came shortly after the summer blockbuster hit Jaws, which started a trend that would change the film industry forever. Star Wars was the highest-grossing movie of all time for a period; no one could get enough of the addictive space opera.

From there, Ford quickly began landing roles in big-budget Hollywood movies, but just a decade before, the actor had been rejected from a movie that could have allowed his career to take a slightly different direction.

French New Wave filmmaker Jacques Demy, known for the candy-coloured musicals The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochfort, had travelled to America in the late ‘60s and fell in love. He was totally enamoured by Los Angeles, and he knew that his next movie had to take place in the city. His wife, Agnés Varda, was also inspired, making movies like Lions Love, Uncle Yanco, and Black Panthers during this time.

She once explained in an interview with Alex Simon that Demy was interested in casting Ford in his LA film, Model Shop, which formed part of his unofficial ‘universe’, bringing in characters from other movies. 

Model Shop would feature Anouk Aimée as Lola, a character she played in Demy’s 1961 film of the same name. The film also referenced plotlines and characters from some of his other movies; however, for the first time, Demy was making a movie set in America in English. He wanted a new American actor to play the male lead, and when he saw Ford, he knew he had found who he was looking for.

Sadly, the producers weren’t as convinced. Varda explained, “The studio said they didn’t see anything in him, and the film would make no money if he was cast! Harrison was nice enough to appear in Beaches [of Agnes] and talk about this. But looking back, I think Jacques wished he would have done things differently.”

Ford wanted to star in the film, but it just didn’t work out, and Gary Lockwood was chosen instead. “He wanted me in the lead role. We had spent quite a bit of time walking around Los Angeles, exploring model shops, those establishments that rent models to photographers for sometimes naughty sessions … I was very keen to participate in Model Shop but the studio opposed it,” Ford told Le Figaro.

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