Indiana Jones 5 News

June 21, 2023
LUCASFILM RED CARPET PREMIERE
Harrison Ford: "You're wrong. I am sentimental."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "It feels really special being here. You know, this is where it was born, and it's such a huge staple of American cinema. Seeing all the fans here in their hats and their outfits, it's just been such a long time that we've been waiting for this moment, so it's really, really exciting."
Ethann Isadore: " It's amazing. It's an amazing feeling. I feel like I'm in a dream right now. All the fans are amazing. I love you guys."
James Mangold: "It's the end of a giant journey. I've been working on this movie for over two and a half years now. But it's also the culmination of some profound relationships in my life. What a thrill to be collaborating with Kathy Kennedy and Steven Spielberg and John Williams and George Lucas and Harrison Ford."
Kathleen Kennedy: " It's just fun, and I think certainly now and then and all along the journey, it's just been a really good time. Indy's been in our lives and all the fans' lives a long time, so to be at this point is pretty incredible."
John Rhys-Davies: "What are you doing here? Well, I'm here to watch The Dial of Destiny."
Mads Mikkelsen: "This is what it's all about. This is the real deal. I think it's all about rediscovering it. We're going back to the roots. It's a real Indiana Jones film with a couple of new layers, I would say."
Oliver Richters: "Meeting Harrison was my most special moment. I came on set. He was just finishing a scene. And I said, hey, Harrison, I'm the guy that's gonna chase you throughout the movie. And he looked at me and said, I quit."
Toby Jones: "I'm looking forward to seeing what of my stuff remains in it, and also, I think there are lots of twists and turns in the story, as you'd expect. And actually, it wasn't the surprises that struck me most. It was how emotional the film is."
Boyd Holbrook: "I think people are gonna find this movie a little bit more touching. Might be because it's Harrison's last one, but there's just an emotional journey that you don't get in the previous films that's great."
John Rhys-Davies: "(It resonates) because he got a good friendship with Sallah. (laughs)"
Ke Huy Quan: "I think it's because of Harrison. It's gonna go down in cinema history as one of the greatest characters of all time. And for me to be here and to be able to watch it with my Indy family is just absolutely incredible."
Karen Allen: "Indiana Jones is a fantastic, complicated hero. I think he captured the imagination of people in the first film, and then they've been able to just take it for 40 years. It's amazing."
Raj Singh: "It just resonates because it's just an authentic, exciting adventure that has universal appeal."
Harrison Ford: "I wanted to close the circle and do one last film about him at approximately my age."

June 21, 2023
GIZMODO io9
James Mangold: "You're asking me to comment on things I wasn't there for. I don't know (what the holdup was), but I do know that they were struggling to figure out what the story should be. At least when I came on, they still had not kind of found, they certainly had adventures written. For me there was always a kind of an innate challenge that I think we saw in Crystal Skull. Which is, in the first three pictures, you have this perfect synthesis of the goals of the picture, which is as much an adventure as it is also a tribute to cinema itself, golden age cinema to be specific. You have this kind of Korngold-esque score by John Williams that's just taking that home. The cinematography is noir-ish and extravagant. And the hero is wearing a fedora and emerging from shadows. Okay. So those three pictures work within that context. But now suddenly, as we jump forward in time, what happens? The world goes through a period of modernism and suddenly Indiana Jones, that music, that look isn't what, the world is listening to Elvis Presley in the Crystal Skull context and in ours to the Beatles and the Stones. So how do you convert? And that may be some of what they struggled with in the last picture - it's almost like someone showed up for a 40s picture but the movie's in the 50s. There's this kind of dissonance and what I thought is, we should make that dissonance a character of the film. We should make the story about what it is to be a hero at sunset in his 70s in a world that no longer is necessarily looking toward the past, but is entirely looking toward the future. In a world in which the heroes are rock stars or astronauts, not archeologists. In a world in which the division between good and evil is not so (obvious). And these were the questions when I came on the movie I was thinking about: How do we make a movie that maintains what we love about Indy, but is aware that it may not be a perfect fit in this other time? I don't think of it as fan service, although obviously if functions that way. But I think of it as what is the tone and style of the picture. I don't what to fight that. Meaning that what I kind of envisioned when I came on was pretty simple. Which is that we give you a full-blast Indiana Jones movie like you knew them in the first 25 minutes, right? Then, you fall off a cliff and you land in a kind of 70s picture with a 70-year-old Indiana Jones in modern New York City with a series of clear human struggles and problems. But then, the movie slowly climbs its way back. This 70-year-old will end up living through his own Indiana Jones adventure again, but the movie earns its way there with this character kind of coming out of a bit of a slumber. (The Macguffin) was one of the first things I came up with. I even think I presented it to Harrison and Steven and Kathy before we had even cemented we were going to make the movie together. Which was that if felt to me, when you were asking before about previous scripts, that the movie had to be about something that made it relevant now and relevant to this character now. And of course, it had to be fun, had to be an adventure, had to have hijinks and comedy, but it had to be about something, as the other ones were. And what struck me is it had to be about time. My hero is old. There's no denying it. And I didn't want to make a movie in which an old guy is running around pretending he's 40. I thought that would be sad. I don't think it's sad for an old guy to be contending with reality and outdoing what we expect of him because he cares so much. So that's what the story I wanted to make was. And therefore there's always been a unique way that the MacGuffin, or relic in the context of an Indiana Jones movie, represents the theme that the movie's about. So in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's not just the Ark of the Covenant, but it's also the idea Indy's a scientist and he doesn't believe in that kind of stuff. He doesn't believe in that kind of magic. It's hokum to him. But, in the end of that movie, he's confronted by the magisterial power of God itself. So that is a character beat, not just a spectacle beat. And in this movie, I felt that Indy's wrestling with time itself and that therefore the relic, if it encapsulates the ability to undo time or escape time or its ravages or regrets, then that could be really rich territory for the film to explore. Early on, there was there were some (online) people who were knocking the picture before I'd even started shooting it and I just thought, probably stupidly because there's no way to have a kind of fair dialogue on those forums, that if I just pointed out, why don't you let me make it before you rip it apart? That it would actually engender some kind of human response. But the problem is it doesn't. What was mystifying for me a couple months ago was that when you're reading things about your movie that are not just wholly untrue but are just completely made up, and the way the echoes chamber of the internet works is that if one person says it, Ed says I heard a rumor, then you can report that I read a report. And then someone, and now you're a more legitimate institution, and someone can go, I read on Gizmodo that a report of a rumor, and suddenly this thing starts to have a life of its own, and your battle, and it's complete fiction. So there's an idealist in me, and I keep going, if I just tell people the truth won't they believe me? And I realize no, there's a whole world, there's a whole world that views me as part of some kind of elite conspiratorial effort to undermine something. And I'm not, I'm just a guy who loves movies and who's trying to live through each day and do the very best I can, knowing I can't possibly please everyone."

June 21, 2023
VARIETY
James Mangold: (The fifth movie had been bouncing around in development for the better part of three years. Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp had conceived a roughly five-minute opening sequence set during World War II.) "Harrison told me he was nervous, because he felt like if people saw him younger, when they confronted Indiana in his 70s they'd be disappointed."
Harrison Ford: "He seemed to have a keen perception of what was required. I just found it very easy and comfortable to work with him."
Kathleen Kennedy: "It was pretty much immediate that Steven said, 'Oh, he would be fantastic. Let's do that.' Oh, (Mangold) was incredibly intimidated. He was immediately excited by the potential of it, but he was very daunted by stepping into Steven's shoes."
James Mangold: "I've always been a little behind the curve of what's happening in the moment. I mean, I made a wordless film about a fat guy in a diner when everyone else was trying to emulate Quentin - when the hot thing was clove cigarettes and rock-'n'-roll soundtracks. I am interested in making something that works from beginning to end - to curtain. Otherwise, I'm working on the world's most expensive television show. There are a million land mines. But the idea that I would get a chance to play not just in the backyard of my heroes, but with Harrison, with Steven - it was so profoundly moving to me. How many people get a chance to make a movie with these people? What's so beautiful about the best of the Indiana Jones movies is that thematically they know what they're about. I didn't feel like I knew what Crystal Skull was about. He's living in a world that has overtaken him - a world that has found new heroes in John Glenn or Elvis Presley. No one in the film is really thinking about the past, everyone's focused on the future." Mangold says he "spoke plainly" about these feelings in early discussions with Spielberg and Kennedy about what he'd want to do with Indy 5, which he felt was at risk of making many of the same mistakes as Crystal Skull. The MacGuffin at the center of the early script, for example, "was just another relic with power, similar to the relics we had seen," with no clear connection to Indy or what he was going through. So he changed it to the Antikythera."
Kathleen Kennedy: "Indy had spent his entire life exploring time. Once Jim seized upon that as a theme, it emotionally resonated, frankly, with all of us, who have in excess of 40 years invested in this storytelling."
James Mangold: "It might be a really good opening gambit for the present-tense part of the movie - that much about growing older in life is disappointing."
Harrison Ford: "I tried to raise my voice into a higher register, which seemed to be appropriate for the age, and physically tried to move with all the grace and youthfulness that my old ass could muster. I had not anticipated that the process of de-aging, if you will call it that, would be so successful."
James Mangold: "You have to believe that they're going to be able to do (de-aging) better, but you don't know. Every movie is a leap of faith. People are like, Can Joaquin Phoenix sing? And you go, Yeah, absolutely. He's incredible. And you don't know. You're just believing in the people around you delivering. I never went there (asking why Spielberg passed). I mean, it wasn't my business. I knew he had a personal movie he had been working on, so I assumed that he wanted to make The Fabelmans. But I didn't grill him about it." They talked frequently about the "mechanics of things" and how an Indy movie should feel and move. "Steven told me, Think of shooting an Indiana Jones movie like you're shooting a trailer - no scene can ever last too long. I wasn't looking to make the movie my own. I would say I was looking to have a voice. You don't want me doing a knockoff Steven, but I want to be playing from the same hymnal, using the same tools. I mean, I'm pinch-hitting for Babe Ruth. I at least have to use my own swing some of the time. But the reality is, every day I'm thinking of what he would do, how he would do it. In any way I could, I wanted to do the movie in his style. It didn't feel threatening to me at all. When you're in franchise land, it's very hard for critical thinkers to overlook what I'm sure their editors want, which is this business prism of how does it rate to the other ones? I always thought if I were second or third best to one of the greatest films of all time, I'd be good. I mean, it all vaporizes later. Either the movie will live or it won't. I'm not interested (in a Helena spinoff). I refuse. I just can't do it. The amount of lore and Easter eggs and fan service starts to become antithetical to any of this (rules) stuff at a certain point. It isn't storytelling anymore. It's large-scale advertising."
Kathleen Kennedy: "(A Helena spinoff is) entirely possible. We're not having any of those conversations right now. We're just focused on finishing this with Harrison."

June 22, 2023
THIS WEEK IN STAR WARS
Harrison Ford: "I think I'd have to say (the character has changed) not much. The character is a reflection of the story, and the story is of someone who is not Harrison Ford, but is Indiana Jones. And participating in representing the relationships that he has with his father, with his wife, with the young sidekicks that populate these films."
Mads Mikkelsen: "For me, and a lot of people in my generation especially, a lot of my friends who are directors, that's what started everything. They watched that film. I was just watching it and loving it and wanting to be up there doing the things they were doing, and well, now I got to do it."
Ethann Isadore: "I used to watch these movies so many times with my family. I used to watch them almost every weekend with my mother and my dad, like who didn't watch them and who didn't love them? Who doesn't love Indiana Jones?"
Boyd Holbrook: "Yeah I think about Ke Huy Quan, who I just wanted to be that kid, and just really giving the sense of adventure that you can have these adventures too. And I think that's as cliche as it sounds, the magic of Cinema."
James Mangold: "The cast and crew of Indiana Jones, of Raiders, were my heroes. So of course I was there on opening day, because you're talking about George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. You're talking about Harrison Ford, John Williams. These were my North Star."
Shaunette Renee Wilson: "It's cool to actually Collide generationally. You look at the beginning of the movie that takes place in the 40s and we jump to the 60s, and feels pretty appropriate to say that this is such a timeless franchise and a timeless piece. It was wonderful to be representative of that."

June 22, 2023
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT
Harrison Ford: "I'm so proud (shutting down Hollywood Boulevard). Complicated (emotions). Complicated. I'm very grateful that we get to do this, that we rounded the corner and brought the character full circle, and that's very important to me. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to make this film. I'm hoping that all these people will be grateful for it. I'm not going to miss anything because the film will still be there for people when I'm dust, and it doesn't matter. I mean, what matters is the making of it. The process of making it. That's what really counts. That's where we face ourselves. Should we be doing this? Is this the right thing to do? Is this the best expression of this idea? I mean, we depend on the audience. I work for them. I work for all of you. So if I make you happy, it makes me happy."
Ky Huy Quan: "It was incredible (seeing Ford here on the red carpet). The first time I reunited with him was at Disney's D23. The second time was at the Oscars. And for him to present us for best picture just makes that night even so much more memorable. I thought I couldn't love the man more, but I did. I said a lot, I forgot. But honestly every time I see him he's such a gracious man, such a humble man. And the reason why I love acting so much is because of him, because of that experience that we had on Temple of Doom. So here we are, so many years later. I can't help myself. Every time I see him or Steven or George, I have to give him a big hug because of course these men changed my life. Who would have thought that 39 years ago we premiered Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom right next door at the Mann Chinese Theater. And so to be able to be here tonight is incredible. I have so much respect for the Oscars and honestly, I still look at that statue with awe and wonder because I can't believe it has my name on it. So it is very high up. It means a lot and I cannot believe that it's at home. He's my new best friend."
Harrison Ford: "That music follows me everywhere I go. They were playing it in speakers in the operating room when I did my last colonoscopy! (Mangold sings, Ford moans)"
Q: "People think you're a bit of a snacky treat."
James Mangold: "What's a snacky, is that a good thing?"
Harrison Ford: "Don't stop, don't stop."
James Mangold: "It's a very (good thing), you're a snacky treat."
Harrison Ford: "Salty or savory?"
James Mangold: "Well then, (salt and crunch), you got the man then, you've got the guy then."
Q: "Getting in shape?"
Harrison Ford: "You call this shape? That shirtless man is an 80-year-old shirtless man at the bottom of his pit. Hell yeah ( went in authentically). Yeah, exactly that. And it wasn't some kind of noble sacrifice of my pride. It's just, that's what acting is. That's doing it. I had a chance to act those (de-aged) scenes."
James Mangold: "He didn't just have a hand, he is that guy."
Harrison Ford: "That's my real face from 40 years ago, cause Lucasfilm has all of this film. They could go through all that and find all the right light and angles and stuff. So it's very cool."
James Mangold: "It's also him, meaning the guy doing all that is him. I think that a lot of the credit goes to the fact that we're using the real guy, you know, it's not anyone who can just drive this technology and just produce a character. What's most clear to me is watching how particular the expressions and vernacular the language of Indiana Jones is developed by Harrison. No one does all that stuff quite that way. It was awe (taking over from Spielberg). You're talking to someone who first encountered Harrison in a small role in Apocalypse Now and in American Graffiti and then went and saw him in Star Wars. This is my high school years, and then suddenly turned around and Indiana Jones, I saw when I was 17 years old. To find myself, not only being lucky enough to be a movie director, but to be a movie director who's collaborating with his heroes was on a personal level, yes, feels, yes, an honor. And to have it be so warm, and such a wonderful experience, was really one of the thrills of my life."
Harrison Ford: "And mine, because I've always wanted to do this. A final chapter for Indiana Jones. I wanted to see him at the end of his career, at the end of the road that we've established. We've taken him part of the way, I wanted to take us all the way. I wanted to not run away from the age of the character, but to embrace it, to tell the story of a man who's spent his life this particular way, and what it comes to. That ride wouldn't have come if he hadn't fallen so low. It wouldn't have been the ride that it is and wouldn't have ended the way that it does. And it ends in a beautiful way. It was gratifying to know that we're doing something that we both believed in, that we had a passion for. And that we did. We did it. Really, we've really worked hard. Completing the job itself was like completing the character."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "It's incredible. The piece of music doesn't get old. And it just, you associate it with so much joy and adventure, like you say, but then it's hard not to sing it on set all the time the moment you see Harrison walking past in the hat getting like a coffee. We'd be like (singing), he's like shut up! Well, it's surreal. We were born into an Indiana Jones world. It feels incredible being part of the last hurrah. And I think the film does justice to all the films that came before, and has so much new stuff and has its own gravitas and its own beauty to it. Yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful feeling."
Shaunette Renee Wilson: "Yeah, and I think it's such an honor to be part of the team and people to say goodbye to this character, and to tell a story that I think resonates so much with people who are going through different facets of their life, different eras of their life, they're aging, and what does it mean to actually be..."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "...old."
Shaunette Renee Wilson: "To accept, and be like, all right, this is done. This moment is over. So yeah, it was wonderful."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "(Harrison) is so funny and he's so much fun. That wasn't really surprised. He's just so many wonderful things all wrapped up in one, and I think he's a very present actor, and that makes everyone just feel a little bit more alive on set. The moment he walks on set everyone's sort of like, let's go. And then he's just hilarious. He's so good at relaxing everybody. He's an amazing leader, but also he has a very silly sense of humor."
Q: "Helena to continue the franchise?"
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Listen, that character is so much fun to play, and I know that she'd go on extraordinary adventures, so yeah, I'd love to go on another adventure with her, but I do feel it would have to be like very much her own world, because the world of Indiana Jones I think goes with Indy. I think (this is it), yeah. He's pretty sure."

June 22, 2023
CNN: WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE?
Harrison Ford: "I don't (plan to retire). I don't do well when I don't have work. And I love to work. I love to feel useful. It's my jones. I want to be helpful. It is the people that you get to work with. The intensity and the intimacy of collaboration. It's the combined ambition somehow forged from words on a page. I don't plan what I want to do in a scene. I know what, and I don't feel obliged to do anything. But I am naturally affected by the things that I work on. I wanted it to be character driven. And I wanted us to confront the question of age straight on. Not to hide my age, but to take advantage of it in the telling of the story. I feel very strongly that it (pulls that off). I'm very grateful Jim Mangold for the all the work. No, no (it's not bittersweet). It's time for me to grow up. Six years ago, I thought maybe we ought to take a shot at making another one. And I wanted it to be about age because I think that rounds out the story that we've told and we brought it to the right place. I mean, the last one ended in kind of a suspended animation. There was not a real strong feeling of the conclusion or the closure that I always hoped for, the roundness and speaking to this issue of age. Not making jokes about it, but making it a real thing. Not completely (sure how they do it). But it is 40 year-old Harrison Ford and that's why it looks so good. Lucasfilm, I've been working for Lucasfilm most of my adult life. Every frame of film there that are used in the films that we made together, and those that are not, all every frame of film could be mined with, here we go again, artificial intelligence. And they could find the right angle the right light, so that's my mouth, my eyes, my face, married. And it's not Photoshopped or anything, it doesn't look that way. It's real."

June 22, 2023
UPROXX
James Mangold: "Well, that's good (it's audacious). I feel like that's what these movies always were. I've had many conversations with Steven about this and certainly Harrison - and the ending of Raiders is wild. If you're talking about the ending. But the fact is the movies themselves really relish in taking very sharp turns, cutting very sharp turns on the ski slope, if you will. (A crazy ending is) de rigueur, to speak French, for this series of films. I think because the films are about the relics. About mysterious power and majesty and mysticism that surrounds them. And it almost goes without saying, the old expression of playwriting is a gun in the first act always goes off in the third. And in an Indiana Jones movie, it's the relic in the first act always goes off in the third. The relic is inevitably going to show its power at some point in one of these pictures. We went through a ton (of titles). No, I can't (give an example). I don't mean I can't do it because of some corporate secrecy oath. I can't do it because I can't remember. You couldn't say last because Last Crusade did it and wasn't. 'Final' is in every movie from Halloween. Every horror movie has, at least, the 17th installment is called 'Final' something. So you think, you can't go 'final.' Well, of course (there were other options for Mutt). When you've got a wide-open canvas before you, there are always options. But the reality is you want the story to focus on the characters that are in the picture. And so saying someone's out wandering off in the periphery seems sadder purgatory than actually making them a story point in the film and using their character's existence as a tremendous source of drama for some of our lead characters. And I think (Helena's) also, a lot of the most ambitious and brilliant people can be channeled to good or channeled to not good. And she's a force of nature that comes into the picture and it's up to Indy to give her some lessons - life lessons. I didn't need more adults (like Short Round) in the movie. I was looking for a kid. So for me, the adventure was to find, but, also, Everything Everywhere was nowhere and not in my mind when this movie was happening, because it was probably shot at about the exact same time, maybe concurrently. It wasn't like (the script) was a carburetor or an exhaust pipe or a muffler broken. It was that I wasn't sure that we had fixed what the movie was actually about on a thematic level. Meaning that you can always come up with a plot. There's some person nefarious doing something that's dangerous and the protagonist sets off to stop them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what's the movie about? What's the resonance of the film about? And when I was invited to come aboard, what I told Harrison and Steven and Kathy and everyone else involved was that I felt that it's no secret that Harrison, at that point, was in his late 70s. And I felt like that's going to be right there front and center in the face of our audience. That the hero they've followed for 42 years is an old man now. And that doesn't have to be a bug. That can be a feature. That can be what our movie is about, which is a hero at twilight whose entire life behind him has created both great adventures and triumphs that he carries with him, but also hurts and regrets. I don't call it bad place. But at a low point, yes. (With) a glass of scotch. After four days of a junket, the idea of waking up on a Lazy Boy with a glass of scotch in my underwear sounds awesome. But the reality is, what I always feel like I have to say, although I trust you, Mike, but especially with folks who exist in the world of 28-character commentary, is that it's not putting him in a bad place, it's starting him at a low point. So he can find his mojo again and have one last ride. The idea isn't to dump on him. The idea is as old as Aristotle, to start a character one place so he ends up in a different one. And what so many fans seem to never understand is, if you don't start a character some place that's a little bit of a distance from the ending, then you basically just have a fashion video of some heroic dude or dudette running around being awesome from scene one until scene 120 and there is no dramatic arc. What is it they're encountering? What emblem they wear on their chest? How cool they're going to look today? The reality is that if you want to make a movie that has humanity, you have to give your characters what is, in old-school terms called, an arc. We love this guy! We love this character that Harrison created. And also George and Steven and Larry Kasdan and many others contributed. But I believe after having spent the last couple years in his intimate company, that Harrison's particular obsession with undermining the obvious, with digging out humor - even if it's at the expense of his character - which he's done since the very beginning of his career. Even with other characters like Han Solo, there is such an ability of fearlessness to know that the audience is going to like him and track him, even though he isn't 100 percent boy scout. And he isn't always brave and he is a little bit goofy in social situations and frightened of snakes and hesitant and sometimes even whiny, that we love him all the more! Because there's so much character and humor and heart in this quote, unquote hero, as opposed to just bravery and power."

June 22, 2023
TOTAL FILM
Harrison Ford: "This is not an endless stream of jokes about old farts and that kind of thing. This is more complex and textured. And I owe that to what Jim accomplished in the screenplay. It was all strange (without Spielberg). It’s always been strange. But we have a long relationship, Steven and I, and Steven has incredible grace and generosity at his core and we talked a lot. Steven’s fingerprints are all over this movie. (And) not in a bad way!"
James Mangold: "We’re following the DNA of something he built with you many years ago. You’re having a continuous dialogue. I mean, I often say in regard to Steven that I’ve been learning from him long before I met him. I was making Super 8 movies and watching his films and studying them shot by shot. This became an opportunity, this film, to meet your heroes on an equal footing and play with them, which is a kind of a dream!"
Harrison Ford: "Something that Jim and I talked about before the movie started, which made its way into the film and in a line of dialogue, is that I’ve seen a lot of things in my life that I can’t explain. I can’t understand why we’re f***ing sitting here, and that war is going on right over there. And we allow it. And we go on and act like it’s not f***ing there."
Mads Mikkelsen: "He is the youngest person I’ve ever met. He’s 80-years-old and he behaves like a 16-year-old boy. It’s insane. At the press conference, my name comes up, people start clapping and he just whacks me! This is just inappropriate 16-year-old boy (behavior)! And so you don’t feel it. You feel a man full of passion standing right in front of you. This is what he is! He’s the annoying big brother. I might be the little brother."
James Mangold: "(Spielberg) was really happy with the movie. He didn’t only see the final cut, he came and visited many times and was watching dailies as we were shooting and even on weekends when he was shooting The Fabelmans, he and I would talk and check in or he’d just report what he saw and liked. It was the least politically complicated movie I’ve ever been part. That makes no sense if you look at the players involved but it’s absolutely true!"

June 22, 2023
BERLIN PREMIERE
Harrison Ford: "I want them to have a good time. I want them to enjoy the ride. I want them to fold in everything you’ve known about Indiana Jones, and know that this is his destiny. I thank you for all of your passion for these films. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have made another, so thank you. Ich bin ein Berliner."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "There’s no greater feeling than throwing yourself at a tuk-tuk from another tuk-tuk, and especially if Harrison Ford is in one of them. (I crashed) very elegantly. I did crash a tuk-tuk just once into the back of Mads."
Harrison Ford: "It wasn’t her fault. Actually Mads backed into the tuk-tuk that she was driving."
Mads Mikkelsen: "Here we go again. Here we go again."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "There’s a conspiracy theory."
Mads Mikkelsen: "(I’m taking away) Indy’s hat. I didn’t have a chance, everybody was looking at it. I grew up with this film. I was 15 when I watched it again and again, and everybody who’s in my generation and younger understands how important these films were for us. Whether you were watching them, or later on became filmmakers, it was just insane. And all of a sudden I got the chance to be just a tiny little kid brother family member of this franchise. I’m just so proud of it. So it means the world to me."
Thomas Kretschmann: "Ich bin ein Berliner, verklich."
Mads Mikkelsen: "Ich bin auch ein Berliner."
Thomas Kretschmann: "It was very simple. I entered as a fan, and I left as a partner. So, and I’m very proud about it."
Harrison Ford: "Thank you. We work for you. We appreciate you. Thank you very much. (four mic drops)"

June 23, 2023
LUCASFILM
James Mangold: "(Raiders) inspired me. I mean, I was already making Super 8 films at that point; I was already a crazy filmmaking geek. My room was a double-system editing room and cameras galore, and I was devising how to make special effects, building models, animating, and shooting movies in my high school. (Indy's) lost. There are several different storylines stranding through the movie. One is obviously the adventure story involving the relic, but also one is about... time and its regrets. About choices we've made in the past, choices we wish we might have made differently. People we've hurt - maybe inadvertently, maybe intentionally. Times our eyes were closed to something that we wish we had seen. We understand from the moment we meet Indy in 1969 that he is haunted by something, but we don't know what it is. It's made with such love for the character. And part of love means trying to do something new. Not just making a movie for its own sake, to be a commodity, but to try and push the character and understand the character at this stage of his life. (On Call of the Wild, Ford and I) didn't talk much about Indy, but what we did find is that we really got along. We became friends. I loved the idea of working on something else with him, but at that time, I had no anticipation that this door was going to (open). I think we had a similar viewpoint about movie making. Harrison has been a gigantic movie star for the last 40 or so years, but I think he is, at heart, an actor. Harrison works every day to try and undermine the kind of tropes and cliches of the leading man in any of his films. You can see the actor at work pushing the audience to adore his character even though he can be vain or arrogant. That's part of what we love about Harrison - he's not afraid. He's not vain about how he plays his heroes. He has the confidence to know we're going to love them even more if they look like us. I spent my whole life admiring many of the people who I worked together with on this movie. I've met some of them in the past, but there's no way to connect with someone better than working with them. It tests you. You know each other. What you look like when you're exhausted. What you look like when you're frustrated; when you're up and you're down. And whether I'm talking about Steven or Phoebe or Harrison or John Williams, these are people who've seen me at my best, at my worst, at my most exhausted, at my most jubilant. We've shared hard work together."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "I'm excited for people to meet Helena. (She's a) wombat. She's a slippery fish, I'll tell you. But she's a lot of fun. There wasn't much improvisation. We stuck to the script, which I always think is actually a relief. When the script's that good, it's all about finding the chemistry and the rhythm within it. We would talk a lot with Jim beforehand, but we didn't do too much rehearsal. There were little moments throughout that sort of occur naturally. But we did have a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. I was sort of quite keen to rehearse, and (Ford) was like, (in deep voice) 'Save it for the camera.' No, I have better (impressions), but I'm warming up. (To Ford) You haven't seen all of them!"
Harrison Ford: "No, I haven't."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Oh my gosh, I had the time of my life. The advice (Ford) gave me when I have to take a punch, 'Imagine that I'm drunk,' was really useful! I'm going to take that through my life, in life and in my work. It was very, very important to me that I rehearsed not punching Harrison over and over. It's such a huge staple of American cinema. I find it very emotional and I think Harrison's performance is so perfectly Indiana Jones and everything you want him to be. And then there's this extra layer of profundity about what it means to be in the last chapter of his Indiana Jones story."
Harrison Ford: "I think we made four great films, but I wanted to close the circle and do one last film about him at approximately my age. I've always enjoyed playing him. The relationship with Phoebe's character is, I think, one that was built on such solid ground. We had a really good script to work with and it was a great pleasure to get a chance to work with Phoebe. I enjoyed it immensely. I had a lot of fun. No, that's acting. The dynamic of the characters is an armature to tell the story. The relationship between Phoebe and I is not as fraught as the relationship between Indy and Helena. But as a relationship that's built on collaboration and affinity for both the material and what each of us represent, I think I was well cast in this part to play opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "It was a long list."
Harrison Ford improvised a moment in a fight with Mads Mikkelsen when Indy covers the antagonist's face with his fedora before socking him in the jaw. "It was the strangest thing. I had trouble with the shoulder before, but it had not come its full course. I just was showing somebody where the punch would come from, to demonstrate what I wanted to do for Jim Mangold to our cinematographers. And I pulled back on my shoulder and somehow it tore my (subscapularis) off the rotator. I'm not very sentimental. I'm sentimental about the relationships that we have made and have had the opportunity to enjoy making these films. But the stuff, I don't care that much about."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "He's a contrarian. He'll tell you the whole time, I'm not sentimental, I'm not nostalgic. Then he'll like cry at his premiere. He cares a lot."

June 23, 2023
DISNEY DEUTSCHLAND BERLIN RED CARPET
Harrison Ford: "I'm glad to be able to bring this film here. These people, I work for them. If they're happy, I'm happy. We work for you. We appreciate you. Thank you very much." (mic drop)

June 24, 2023
NEW YORK TIMES
John Williams: "If they do an Indiana Jones 6, I'm on board."
James Mangold: "I don't see John as simply a genius of themes and tunes, which he is of course. Rather, it's John's moment-to-moment scene work that astounds me. Film scoring is really a kind of duet between the director and the composer. It's John's sensitivity to this partnership that most defines his work for me."
John Williams: "I just thought, if Harrison Ford can do it, I can do it. I had a wonderful time writing a theme for (Phoebe)."
James Mangold: "When John first played that theme for me, with the orchestra, I was wowed, of course. Completely knocked over by the music. But I was also a bit nervous that it was just too much - too damned lush. Too romantic. John just smiled, gently, and let me babble, because I think he knew it was going to work beautifully."

June 26, 2023
HEYUGUYS
Harrison Ford (in LA): "The films themselves are such a powerful entertainment. I’ve said in the past that I think that Indiana Jones is more about movies than it is about archeology. It’s about the fun you can have at a movie. It’s about the emotional exercise you can get at a movie. And though we’ve made four in the past, this one has an air of finality because it’s my last Indiana Jones movie. I wanted it to deal with the issue of age, of his advancing age, and what age has taken away from his capacity, his mental energy, his physical prowess, and put him in contest with somebody, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is out to swindle him. So there is that mental wrestling going on between these two characters as well. We met in Jim Mangold’s office towards the end of the day."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "I was quite nervous."
Harrison Ford: "And I was quite uh thrilled, finally working with an actress that’s taller than I am."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "This is a big thing for him."
Harrison Ford: "Yeah, it was a big thing for me obviously."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "When I opened the door he said, my God, you’re so tall. I think he cried, didn’t you? You cried with relief at my height."
Harrison Ford: "I would have cried had I known what I was about to go through, I would have cried. But I didn’t. I was thrilled because I had seen Phoebe in Fleabag. I was aware of the range of her skill and talent, and I was thrilled that we had a story that attracted her interest, and that I would have her as a partner in this film."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "And I had grown up with Harrison Ford. The movies that, I mean Witness, The Fugitive, Blade Runner. I was walking into, behind that door were all of those movies when I was meeting Harrison, so it was a huge, hugely exciting and quite an intimidating moment. But the moment the door opened and I saw Harrison, he did just go, hey! And from then on I’d say we became firm friends. But I’ll leave it open to Harrison to see what he says about that."
Harrison Ford: "I feel so, and I hope so, yes. It was a barrel of fun. There are a lot of different elements to the relationship between us, and there are moments of seriousness. But there’s also moments that the audience is meant to enjoy the banter between them, the contest between them. And I think it was well written, and I was delighted by having someone as adroit as she is with comedy, and the mixture of comedy and real true emotion to navigate this story with."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Helena is Indy’s goddaughter. He last saw her when she was 12. And he was very good friends with her father who died not long after he last saw her. And she comes catapulting back into his life at sort of not even a crossroads, just sort of a cul-de-sac in his life. She comes through the door with the joyful history of memories they had when she was young and he came to the house and visited her father, and she comes and tries to infect him with the idea of going on another adventure. But she is slightly more nefarious than she turns out, than she wants him to believe at the beginning. And she has her own agenda. And they end up going on an adventure, but not the one that she proferred to him in the beginning. She’s a mercurial little rascal. Not smiling all the time (was a challenge). That was a note that Jim had to give me all the time, just stop smiling, you’re meant to be frightened, but I was like, I know but he’s wearing the hat. So that was a challenge. But also it’s a very physical experience and a very physical job. And even though it was challenging it was such a joy to be able to throw yourself at that and be able to keep your character intact while you’re being sort of flung around a set. That was a challenge."
Harrison Ford: "Well I’m surrounded by,"
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Idiots."
Harrison Ford: "No. A fantastic group of actors. Mads Mikkelsen, Phoebe, all of the characters, Ethann. I mean they’re all so vivid and exciting. My greatest challenge was to keep up with them actually, to keep up with all of them, or try to keep up with all of them, and to maintain the standards that they were setting. It’s both sad and happy (saying goodbye to the character). I mean I’m gratified that I had this wonderful opportunity to work with this character and these kinds of films with some regularity over the last 40 years. But I’m ready to conclude the story of the character. I think it’s appropriate that we do have a story about Indiana Jones which confronts his age, which confronts his mental state when we first meet him, and allows us to see him just picked up and brushed off and back in action one more time. I’m really gratified that we found a script, a story, and then when Steven brought Jim in, I thought that was fantastic. I’m delighted with the film all together. It was a great, great experience."
Harrison Ford (in UK): "I never really thought about (a closing chapter). It was kind of step by step on down the path, and I didn’t know where it was going, or when or if we’d ever get there. I just made one movie at a time. The first one, I knew that if it turned out okay that we might make another one. But four of them? Never, never would have thought that was possible. And then after a 15-year break, one more? Yeah, yeah, because I always wanted to see this guy more towards the end of his string. We had spent all this time with him as a young vigorous man. I wanted to see the effect of age and time, because this is about time, this movie. I wanted to see the effect of all the things he’s done, who he’s been, how he’s behaved, on him near my age. To kind of not wrap up all the ends, but emotionally register this volume of time, these experiences that we’ve all shared together. And I’m thrilled to be able to bring this film to the people that have enjoyed the others. Proud of this sucker. I’m proud of this guy for what he done. What he done? He done me the script that done serve the purpose, and he done it good."
James Mangold: "I need a banjo."
Harrison Ford: "Yeah, you do. But what a gift it was to me and to all of us to have this really powerful story underneath us. I wasn’t clever enough to even think about (looking to Sean Connery). But let’s suppose I did. If your dad happens to be Sean Connery,"
James Mangold: "That’s its own damage."
Harrison Ford: "It infuses you and you don’t have to imitate him. Just the experience of being with him gets in your gets in your bones."
James Mangold: "I always think of the movie, that moment that Ethann pilfers your father’s watch from you. I always love what you do with that moment, because it’s like give me that, that was my father’s watch."
Harrison Ford: "He’s a pickpocket, he’s a thief, and took my watch. But in the script, it was my watch. And what I said was, that was my dad’s watch. Right?"
James Mangold: "(Having that emotional undercurrent) is my life’s work when I work on larger movies, trying to find a way. There’s so many, whatever you’d call them, tentpole movies, franchises, large scale financial entertainment endeavors that don’t seem to have an actual reason, other than people know these character’s names and want to see them in another one. I came up making small movies intimate with the characters. So even when I find myself making a larger scale film like this, with all the demands you mentioned of entertainment and action and choreography and spectacle, part of what makes the spectacle feel spectacular is that it’s interspersed with humanity and human moments. First of all, time passing is sad, but it is all we have. That would make life sad, because if time weren’t passing, I’d just be a videotape on the pause button. But sadness is a part of life. And just like intimate scenes make spectacle scenes more visible, sad scenes make happier scenes feel more wonderful. But I don’t tend to think of scenes on emotional colors anyway. Because sometimes characters on a screen sharing a moment of grief or shared sadness can actually be incredibly warm to see, that these two people are comforting each other or finding each other in that moment of grief. So emotion and scenes is all about how the actors are connecting, and the characters are connecting more importantly."
Harrison Ford: "I’m just part of a team of people that get together and make these things. It’s a powerful experience for me to have this opportunity."
James Mangold: "You are, but you also did something really miraculous with this character. His contradictions and uniqueness, there’s no one else in the world who could have made this guy happen."
Harrison Ford: "Thank you."
James Mangold: "You’re welcome."

June 26, 2023
HEYUGUYS
Frank Marshall (in LA): "It’s great to be back. I mean, it’s been a long haul to get here, but we’re thrilled to be back, and thrilled to be having the movie here, being celebrated on both sides of the street after over 40 years."
Kathleen Kennedy: "Yeah. And you have Indiana Jones back, I think, not just for those of us who made the movie, but for everybody else. I mean, it’s such an excitement to be having fun with this character again."
Frank Marshall: "I think that’s what’s great about tonight, there are generation after generation, there are kids that are now grown up who saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and now they’re here tonight and they’re bringing their kids. So it’s great to have this generation, a new generation discover Indiana Jones."
Kathleen Kennedy: "I also think that it just brings back so much. When people step back into the theater on this fifth movie, they’re going to feel the same. They’re going to see a character that they kind of felt like they grew up with. And I think that that’s a powerful thing to share with family and friends. I think that’s the excitement that comes along with this."
Frank Marshall: "Kind of the same excitement they’ve discovered on the other films. We’re still a family. It’s been a long time getting here, but we’re still a family. They’re going to discover the family of Indiana Jones. There’s a lot of callbacks and a couple of characters from the other movies. So it’s going to be really fun to see how that plays out."
Kathleen Kennedy: "I think also just it’s remarkable to me that Harrison Ford has stood the test of time in the way that he has. And I think that that’s what will really excite people, is that they’ll feel like they’re home again. You know, they’ve stepped in to a new movie, but they feel like it’s very familiar."
Kathleen Kennedy (in UK): "I think what’s amazing is that the Legacy characters and our new cast get along unbelievably well. I think that’s what’s been really fun to watch, is so many people just love this series. And our cast is amazing. Harrison and Phoebe are excellent, and John Rhys-Davies, and our legacy characters have a great time. Karen Allen coming in at the end is pretty special. I think it’s because Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is such an everyman. People can relate to him. He’s not perfect. He’s not a superhero. He’s just a regular guy who cares about what he does."
Frank Marshall: "Yeah, he’s not a superhero. He can get hurt. He can make a mistake. He’s a regular bloke as we say here."
Kathleen Kennedy: "There’s no one like Harrison. He just makes it a joy. He’s just fun and always energetic, always having a good time."
Frank Marshall: "It was great because over 40 years ago we started here out at Elstree Studios. So it’s great to have the final chapter here and be back again."
Kathleen Kennedy: "I think movies need to be on the big screen, and this is you know this has everything about it that makes you feel like a kid again. Being immersed on the big screen is what the fun of movies is."
Frank Marshall: "Yeah, you can’t go on an adventure with Indiana Jones without being on the big screen."
Kathleen Kennedy: "It’s a mixture. It depends on whether you grew up with these films or whether it’s new. I think certainly people who grew up with Indiana Jones, there’s a real sense of completion. But also just recognizing that they shared a life with him essentially is pretty cool."
Frank Marshall: "I agree."

June 26, 2023
LONDON PREMIERE
Kathleen Kennedy: "(Harrison) was extremely anxious to do this again. I think he wanted to really bring a meaningful ending to this, even though that’s a difficult thing to do with this character. I think it was really important to him."
Frank Marshall: "It was important to us because it started here out at Elstree over 45 years ago, and we just wanted to put that little period on it and bring Indiana Jones back for one more adventure."
Kathleen Kennedy: "And we also met on Raiders of the Lost Ark. And then got married and we’re still married."
Frank Marshall: "And we’re still married. That must be some kind of Hollywood record."
Kathleen Kennedy: "So if you want to fall in love, just make an Indiana Jones movie. I think what was an easy choice about Jim (Mangold) is that he loves movies. He loves cinema. He sees everything. He loved Indiana Jones. It meant so much to him. And I think to step into Steven’s shoes, to be mentored by Steven, to work with Harrison who he adores, I think it was really the perfect combination."
Frank Marshall: "It goes without saying, it was fantastic. Working with Harrison is like no one else. He’s so much fun, but he’s so passionate about the work and about the character, and he’s so generous about everybody on the set. It’s just like a big family, so we couldn’t wait to get back together."
Kathleen Kennedy: "We were also bringing those legacy characters in with the new characters. It was really important because this is the culmination of this story. And those are people who meant something to Indiana Jones. To have them part of the story was really, really important."
Frank Marshall: "He’s genuine and authentic and he’s not a superhero. He’s just like us. He makes mistakes, but he’s got a great sense of humor, and he continues to be curious about the world. I think it’s just an enduring character that everybody’s fallen in love with, and still is."
Kathleen Kennedy: "Phoebe was Harrison’s first choice. That’s who he wanted to play Helena. The minute they got together on set, you could tell that they were going to have fun. That’s what happens in this movie, they just have a good time together."

June 26, 2023
LUCASFILM
Kathleen Kennedy: "Harrison wants things to be real."
James Mangold: "It's gonna hurt, but he's gonna do it anyway."
Harrison Ford: "Nobody's gonna believe it."
James Mangold: "Action is an essential element of what an Indiana Jones film is. Our goal was to do as much as we could for real."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "You just feel like anything could happen."
Harrison Ford: "When you're able to keep it real, that feels more visceral for the audience."
Steven Spielberg: "Harrison still has that brash Indy attitude."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "There's so much action and spectacle in this film, but also it's got heart."
Harrison Ford: "It's not just action for action's sake. You can see a human experience. I'm having more fun than I really should, so don't tell anybody. Okay, thanks, nice seeing you folks."

June 26, 2023
VARIETY AT TAORMINA FILM FESTIVAL
Harrison Ford: "I think we've got a lot of ordinary heroes out there. They just don't appear in movies all the time. I mean, it's a convention in drama, the unexpected hero, but I have always insisted that I really don't want to be characterized as playing heroes. I play archaeologists or heart surgeons, or, you know, presidents of the United States who get into a s***storm and decide to do something about it. But this film was more than that. I've just done a Marvel movie, I know a hero when I see one. He's got a cape. He can fly or something like that. But this film is not about heroes (like that). At first, it's kind of black-and-white, because it's 1944. And then all of a sudden, we end that part with an escape from a situation. And we find ourselves a hard cut to 1969. And we see the same man, manifestly the same man, wake up in a New York tenement apartment, and you know, he's this lazy boy in his underwear with an empty glass in his hand. Because they're playing god damn rock 'n' roll music. It was one of my favorite things I've ever done in a movie. And I did it to express his vulnerability and his age. Anyway, I think it's a great sequence in a damn good movie."

June 27, 2023
DEADLINE AT TAORMINA FILM FESTIVAL
Harrison Ford: "I feel the script is beautifully written. I mean I wouldn't be there if we didn't all agree that we had a great script. But I think I've answered the question about why I'm working so much. But this is what I'm working on right now, is Indiana Jones. I'm having as much fun as I've ever had and that a big part of why I'm here. In order to see that (shirtless) scene in the movie, you have to sit through the first 20 minutes of the film in which you spend time with a 40 year old Indiana Jones. The one you're familiar with. It's 1944. It's the end of World War II and you are witnessing the conclusion of another adventure which you don't get to know about very much. This is the shape of the teasers that are at the front of every Indiana Jones movie. But in this one, which we didn't do in the others, we introduced what we call the MacGuffin, the object of our quest, the sacred or magical or somehow mysterious object. And the reason I wanted to do another Indiana Jones film was because I was of my current age. I wanted to see Indiana Jones as an older man. I wanted to see him dealing with the loss of his youth, dealing with the loss of his vigor, dealing with the fact that he's teaching archeology to people that could give a rat's ass about what he's talking about in the past. They're interested in, men are on the moon, man. There's rock and roll music playing in the streets. There's a civil rights movement in other places. There's a women's movement in other places, a youth movement. There's psychedelic drugs and all that kind of stuff, and he's mad. What the? He's lost. His marriage is in disarray, you'll learn later. But what I wanted from the cut, it's a hard cut from 1944 to 1969. I wanted to express character. I wanted you to feel that he was not the Indiana Jones you knew and wonder why and want to know more. So the reason I wanted to be in my underwear was because I wanted to be vulnerable, to look vulnerable. The reason I was sitting in the chair with my back to the camera is because I had a glass, and empty glass in my hand. Oh, well it's a sign, we know what that means. And then the rock and roll music, well they paid a million dollars for that rock and roll music. That was pretty iconic music that brought us right back, right to that space. And then there's a beautiful little comic scene about being crazy with the neighbors playing loud music again. But it's so beautifully written. It's genius. And I'm there with my shirt off because I've been recovering from some kind of orthopedic injury. Oh yeah, I tore my right shoulder at the beginning of the movie. So I was in s*** shape, man. I had to look worse than I've ever looked in my life, and I hope so. Because that's what I thought I was expressing, and I'm walking and now people say, oh he looks pretty good. I was doing everything to do to express this this thing about the character. The beauty of this writing, this director, this combination of actors is really good. I mean the people who left this room are geniuses. Mads is a fantastic actor. I can't tell you how much he brought to this. Phoebe, just a genius about human relationships and emotional realities and a revolutionary. And it turns out she's really good at action stuff. Who thought that? Just people throwing themselves into these things and really working hard to make a great entertainment. I get to ride a horse in 1923, I got a horse at home. Well, they wouldn't let me ride in the subway. We wanted the action sequences to reflect the age of the character. We weren't running away from the age of the character. That was a part of the story. The whole story is about time. That we have here the Archimedes invention, what we call the Dial of Destiny, that actually existed. We don't have any proof that it worked the way that it works in the movie. But Archimedes actually made this instrument. This is a historic reality. Parts of it were found. It didn't work. I mean nobody could move those parts or anything. But that's about time. The movie is about time because we were able to go to the past. And the character is about time. Time is running out. He's been this, now he's this. What's left in his life that has to be done? Well he has to atone. The story's got to make him whole again. I mean that's what we want emotionally. And so that's the emotional power of the film, I think. I was the one was pressing to do another one. I thought that there was a value in doing one more, because I didn't feel that we finished the movie with the marriage to Marion, which was at the end of the preceding film. I wanted to know what happened to Marion and her marriage. Jim Mangold developed this script. Jim Mangold came along when Steven stepped back because he was about to shoot Fablemans, and we'd been trying for years to get a script that everybody was happy with. Then Jim stepped in and developed this really extraordinary script, I believe. And then of course I'd worked with him as a director. I was ambitious to work with him again. He was a perfect director for this thing and everybody agreed, and off we go.How did I get the job? Tom Selleck had the job, but he had also incurred an obligation to do a television series, and he was unable to get out of that contract. I became the second choice and I'm very grateful for Tom. Thank you Tom, man, if you're listening, thank you again. So I got a call from George Lucas who said I'm going to send a script up to your house. Oh really, okay. I want you to read it right away. Huh, okay. I want you to read it in an hour. Uh, okay, I'll read in an hour. I sat down and I read an hour. And then he said, I want you to go over to Steven Spielberg's house and talk to him. Going over to Steven Spielberg's house, never met Steven Spielberg before. And I guess about an hour later I had the job. And then the next part of your question I believe was where did you find the character, how did you find the character, what was there? Well there was a guy in the middle of the jungle with a whip and a leather jacket. Pretty hot out for a leather jacket and a heavy felt hat. And he was an archaeologist, and he was a professor, and what more would you need to know as an actor? This is a guy who carries a whip, we know what that means. He's got a leather jacket, and he's got a hat, and then you've got this story to tell. And then you have these characters that that you relate to. This is Marion. She runs a bar in Nepal. You met her once before. You have a relationship with her. She doesn't like you anymore. There's a reason to go there because her father has this thing, his father was an archaeologist and he had this thing you need to find, this thing and so on and so forth. This is your Lego set. Build something. Well I'll take the Indiana Jones pieces obviously, put them all together, see how they relate to other things. It's the same damn job every time. We're assistant storytellers. Look at the setting here. George Lucas has now got the most successful film in movie history or something going on right here, and he's making this next thing and it's with the guy who made Jaws and all these other, I mean, you better be uh prepared to deliver what it is that's here. But you've got the geniuses to tell you, to help you, to guide you. But when Steven and I first sat down with the script together, we were riding in those days, we sat next to each other in first class and we were going to Hawaii. And we went through the script together page by page. The scenes I was in, the scenes I wasn't in. And we talked about each page, page by page. And sometimes I would say something, I would say doesn't it actually end here? And Steve would say, you know, yeah, good. We just went through the whole script, and he would ask me a question or I would ask him a question, and when we got off that airplane we knew what the movie was. He had explained to me what his movie was, I had explained to him what confusions or options might be mine. And that was a wonderful collaboration. When you get a part that the movie depends on, and I had not had this really in my life, because I was in ensembles. This was an ensemble thing, but it had a main character. Han Solo was part of a pantheon of clear characters. This was a different kind of situation, so I needed to know from the script. Then the performance of it, that's just human relationships representing the reality of the situation, but always attending to the story and the character."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Well, I started my career sitting on a stool for an hour in a black box theater with 60 people in it. So this is quite different from that. The thing that grounds it I think is the script, and the reality of the emotional relationships. And I think that's the thing that you can always reach for. And however huge and spectacular and challenging the action is, which was so much fun to play in that sand pit, and to be able to throw yourself around physically. It's a very different kind of acting. It's a very honest kind of acting because it hurts, and I would end the day with real bruises, also very grounding. But I think really when you have a script like this, and a story like this, and characters that you can really dig into, then the rest of the noise of how huge this is kind of quietens, and you just play the truth of the story. And luckily we had a really wonderful story to play."
Mads Mikkelsen: "Let me phrase it differently. I can't imagine anything that would make me say no. It was as we talked about. It's like I didn't dream of being an actor. As a kid when I watched it I was just watching it. I wanted to be that man with a hat, and jumping around and finding treasures. So I get to, all of a sudden 42 years later I'm here. To be part of that family, just like the small, small, small brother on the left side, is just such a great honor. It's amazing. And playing a Nazi, obviously we don't want Nazis to play a part in in the world anymore, but if there is a part for Nazis it's in an Indiana Jones film. We want to see him punch them and I will gladly be part of that."

June 27, 2023
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Harrison Ford: "I don't connect the dots myself. I mean, I do not know what a legend does for a living. I know that I consider myself to be a working actor, and I'll settle for that. I suppose legend means that you've been around for a long time. And I think it's meant to be, uh, gracious, but it just, uh, sounds old. I'm clever enough to figure out that it's meant to be a nice thing to say, and so it must be. But I'm just telling you what my gut reaction to it is. I don't think (I had the same itch right away like Spielberg and Lucas to make another). It doesn't sound much like me. It would've taken a while. I would've had to do a few other things. (But) there was room for one more story. And that story was the one that dealt with age, time, and relationships in his family - knitting the whole thing together just a little bit more, and feeling a kind of roundness in all of the different stories we've told. I'm more comfortable leaving him at this place than he was at the end of Crystal Skull."
James Mangold: "There was a feeling (in 2020) that they hadn't gotten the script they wanted. (It was) a well-written adventure, but I didn't feel like it was about anything. Specifically, I didn't feel like it was addressing the reality that audiences were going to be facing when they saw the movie, which is that we have a star who's almost 80 years old who's playing this character. The movie has to somehow be about someone in their later years who was a great hero, but who is in this moment experiencing the realities of age. So when I decided the movie had to use Indy's and Harrison's age as a feature and not a bug, it became obvious to me that the relic should somehow also have some kind of relationship to time itself. The movie is not about aging per se, but time, the way time travels for all of us, the way we all get older as the world changes around us."
Harrison Ford: "(It was) a wonderful opportunity (to see Indy) towards the end of his life. I wanted to see him reflect on the behavior that he has exhibited over his life. He's retiring from academia. He's been teaching disinterested students archeology, at a time when everybody's looking forward. No one wants to think about the past. There are men on the moon in a very exciting new time, but this sort of makes him feel a bit out of place. (I just needed) a little brush up with the whip. Steven's in here (head) and here (heart). And Jim acknowledges that he's been influenced by Steven, his work and his style, his method of work, ever since he can remember. (Spielberg was) involved in every aspect of the film."
James Mangold: (Spielberg was in the editing room so often that Mangold can't accurately recall the number of times, sometimes for stretches of six to eight hours at a time.) "(It) could have been a weird experience (but Spielberg) became a friend (and) collaborator. There weren't any internecine battles over what it was going to be. Everyone was really comfortable with where we were going and how we were doing it. (I wasn't aiming to) make any one of the movies over again. (But) almost like an archeologist, if you're trying to understand the epistemology of Indiana Jones, if you're trying to understand what the vernacular and the language is of this kind of movie, then you go to the original because that's where the standard was set."
Karen Allen wishes her character was "more a part of the adventure of this story" yet feels a "sense of gratitude. She's such a vibrant, wonderful character, and it would've broken my heart to see her just vanish into the ether."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "There was no one like him before, and won't ever be again. I was breathless reading (the script and) screamed yes. It's just got so many beautiful tips of the hat to the original franchise. (She's) incredibly ambitious and steely. I love her positivity in the face of absolute catastrophe. The ingenuity of a person like that in the first place, of a successful criminal, is always inspiring. Before this movie, I think the amount of physical action I'd done had mainly been just comedic running up and down the street, and even then, I didn't know that was funny, but apparently it was. (A voicemail from Ford) was actually great because I got my first screaming reaction out of the way without him actually having to be there. He immediately went, 'Hey!' like an old friend. And from that day on, we were fine. We read the script for about five minutes, and we all had a scotch for an hour. So it was perfect. From the moment we met, it was s***heads all round. We were taking the piss out of each other all the time, and having a lot of fun. The most extraordinary thing about working with Harrison is that you're definitely at work - in that his work ethic is so on point, and his discipline is so extraordinary - but because he's that specific and the foundation of the work is really strong, the rest of it can be really fun. There were a lot of pranks, lots of pranks. (Wearing his mask) scared the crap out of him, actually. Even though that 'actually' is only represented by him blinking three times and saying, Get the hell out of my trailer." About 20 minutes later, Ford returned the favor, sneaking up on Waller-Bridge while wearing the mask of her face. He even took the time to tie his shirt into a little bow to match her character's outfit."
Harrison Ford: "I didn't think of it as a prank. But yes, I mean, we spent a lot of time fooling around."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Every now and again when there was a scene with a whip and the guns, or when Harrison first wore the outfit on set, you just got chills. There was a great reverence for the franchise, especially for Harrison, and the atmosphere was thick with that all the time. You'd have to stop yourself getting overwhelmed by it, and just sit down and do a crossword."
James Mangold: "(Ford was) itchy to get acting. You suddenly hear from some corner of the set, 'Let's shoot this piece of s***. And to me, (it's that and) the buoyant feeling of working with this wonderful man who I love. I mean, honestly, I really love him very much. He's irascible, and he can be difficult, and he can be hilarious, and he can be brilliant. It's a relationship I'll be grateful for all my life."
Harrison Ford: "is grateful Tom Selleck couldn't take the job, grateful to Spielberg and Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, and all the people who put their talents and work into supporting the stories themselves. "I think that's a lot of gratitude. There is an audience loyalty that is exceptional. I guess it has to do with rinse and repeat, perhaps, but it is gratifying. And what's more gratifying even than that is the fact that these movies have been passed on from generation to generation in families. And that really has introduced me to new generations of filmgoers. (To fans) Thanks for putting up with me. I hope you've had a good time. I sure have."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "(Punching Indy is) such a brilliant cut, and it's such an excellently scripted moment. And particularly because there's so much fighting and left hooks and all that stuff all the way through the film, when she's just fighting the bad guys. But to have to level a punch to the hero of the film. It was glorious, because it was so funny. Underneath, it really had heart and emotion. And that's really a testament to Jim and the Butterworths for writing a moment like that. I hope the audience understands why she does it. I managed to do quite a lot of the landing and jumping off bits, but none of the actual real, proper dangerous stunts. But I got to drive a tuk-tuk! I did crash it, which wasn't meant to happen. I got to jump out of a plane. And I got to jump into water, and roll out from under things, and jump over things. So there was a lot to do, and I was completely covered in bruises. Each one was a mark of honor for the day."

June 27, 2023
VANITY FAIR
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "It's amazing to feel the fandom that hard (at Star Wars Celebration). It was just a shot to the arm. Like: Oh, yeah. This is what I'm doing!" Kathleen Kennedy broached the idea at the behest of Ford at a dinner in March 2020. "We call it the Last Supper because it was literally the day before they started to shut everything down for COVID, and this was the last dinner I had for a long, long time."
Kathleen Kennedy: "When I said, 'Phoebe, is this something you would ever even consider?' she did exactly what you would want and expect Phoebe to do: She started screaming and then collapsed onto the booth that we were sitting in."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "People have this idea of when (a franchise) should end. And I always think the interesting stuff comes when you push a little bit beyond the end. What happens after the conversation? What happens after someone gets in a cab and goes home? (Marion was) the coolest mother***er anyone had ever seen, and also a joyful and surprising match for Indy."
James Mangold: "(Fleabag is) a lightning bolt of genius on every level - that kind of grand-slam home run project in which you see an artist not only putting themselves so entirely and vulnerably and fully into something, but having such tremendous creative control. That series is so unafraid to be real, to be insane, to veer where it almost scares you, and then come back to something tender."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "I've always been such a lanky, gangly kind of awkward physical person, so I was as surprised as you are. I remember quite early on saying to Jim and Kathleen, 'So I'll be doing lots of training for my stunt debut?' And they were like, 'I think it would be funnier if you don't.' What I love about the character is that she leaps before she looks. And she will just jump on the back of that car not knowing if she's going to survive or not, and it's just through her will that she manages to stay on. Do you know when the bottom of the airplane opens and all the Nazis fall out? So much of acting is getting rid of your self-consciousness and your self-awareness. When you have to jump out of a plane or jump on the back of a car, then it's much easier just to let go." When they threw plastic critters at her, she ran out screaming. "(Ford) made it very clear to me that I was his equal from the first day, and that was very liberating and allowed me to be mischievous and silly. There's no replacing Indiana Jones in any way. But I feel like the character herself - she did feel fresh on the page, and there is a sense of, is there room in the world for someone like this? So I do think there's room for a slightly clumsier, bruised, limping female action star, maybe, in the future."
Harrison Ford: "She's certainly capable of being a movie star. It's a question of whether or not she wants to endure that responsibility. Whatever it is that we think she should do, she'll have a better idea. She's sitting on top of the pile right now."
Kathleen Kennedy: "I would give anything to have Phoebe write a film. Whenever I'm talking to her, she's deep into commitments with current deals, but I would bring her on to write a movie tomorrow. There's just an underlying confidence in the way she makes decisions about herself and her career. She has this insatiable desire to do it all, but you never get the feeling that it's stressing her out. That's the amazing thing. She's just doing it with joy, and that's very, very contagious."

June 28, 2023
RADIO TIMES
James Mangold "I already had my two grown-ups in the movie, so I was kind of, it didn’t occur to me. And certainly Ke was, I think, shooting Everything Everywhere All at Once while we were making this movie, so I kind of hadn’t anything to kind of call out to me and go, this is who you should bring back. I was thrilled when I saw that movie and saw him finding a voice in movies again as a grown-up actor, and in one obviously that was so profoundly successful, and talked to so many people."

June 28, 2023
DAILYMAIL ON LORRAINE KELLY
Harrison Ford "Retired? I wouldn't know what to do with myself. It's been 40 years since the beginning and I'd been waiting for this script and opportunity to come along for quite a few years. And we finally came up with the right mix of adventure and character and emotion and so I was thrilled to be able to step back into this character. It was a big job of work and a very ambitious film and I was delighted with the script. It was fun to go to work every day. (Phoebe) brought incredible intelligence to the character that she plays, I mean actress intelligence. She's really cinema gold. She's a brilliant actress and was a brilliant companion. (Ke) has an amazing constitution and energy. It's so great to see him back in this form. He's genuinely a unique person and he's worked so long in the business, and to have this great success."

June 28, 2023
ROTTEN TOMATIOES
Harrison Ford "We've always gone to exotic locales and there's nothing more exotic in the world than Morocco. It's a nugget of the past that's available for anybody to go visit, and we were able to make a movie there. It brought all kinds of uh of new visual context to the thing. It was great, narrow streets, it's perfect for all these kinds of chase scenes that we were doing. So I loved the work we did in Morocco. And we also went to Sicily, we worked there in part of our journey around the world. These exotic locales bring something visually interesting new to the audience and we've always used them in the films. It's a kernel of the story, what takes place in Morocco is a part of a fabric overall of the story. And each part of that fabric has got to hold together. So uh I'm now done talking about Morocco."
James Mangold "The only things I'd add to it is that I think that the really tricky thing to somehow communicate is that every set piece and kind of sequence in a movie like this is an incredibly complex tapestry of things. The number of shots, stunts, dramatic scenes. But what you're also trying to do in an Indiana Jones film versus a kind of more conventional action picture, is that character is such an important part of these movies. So I like to think, my personal kind of philosophy is, just like you if you're making a musical, the best musicals, it's not like the story stops and they sing and then the story moves on. Through singing, there are more connections made. Similarly in a kind of action movie, particularly with what Steven and Harrison and George developed in the first Indys, the action is a fulfillment of character, not just the most and greatest and latest display of stunts and visual effects. So to use Morocco as an example, the entire sequence also becomes an ongoing argument between Harrison and Phoebe's character Indy and Helena, Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character, so that we're sorting out character stuff while they're almost getting impaled shot and run over, and that it's this commingling and kind of tiling of all this stuff on top of each other that produces some of the really frantic and wonderful energy that I think is the hallmark of these pictures, and I think why you recognize this feeling particularly Indy."
Harrison Ford "I'm in a reflective mood. This is the roundness I was looking for. I was looking for, if I was going to do one more film. I wanted it to be character driven as much as any of them were. I want this one to be more character driven. I wanted to take this character someplace we had not been before with him. I wanted to see the effect of the life that he had lived on him. And we see it in his domestic arrangements with his with his wife. We see it in the messy New York tenement apartment that he now inhabits. There's nothing poetic about it. It's just put there for you to see. And you find your friend, the character that you've come to see, in circumstances where you just say whoa, wait a minute, what's going on here. But I think it's perfect. It's a wonderful dramatic device. So we are able then to watch the new characters in his life buoy him up to the surface again. I can only say that I'm delighted to be able to make films that families have shared with their children over and over and over again. I mean there's four generations, four new generations there, still I hope interested in the character, interested in the movie experience that they can have with this character. These films are more about movies and the pleasure of watching a really well made movie then they are about archeology. But they're essentially about human relationships and what it means to be a complex human being."
Ethann Isidore "I could try to (write Indiana Jones 6)."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge "Don't forget me, don't forget me."

June 29, 2023
LUCASFILM
Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Encountering licensed merchandise) "Cool."
Harrison Ford: "I'm actually bigger than that."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Look at all the different Indy's from all the different ages. Who do you feel most drawn to?"
Harrison Ford: "The biggest one."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "That's it, well balanced. Look at that. Does your hat come off?"
Harrison Ford: "I don't know, let's find out. The head comes with it."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Maybe he wants to keep his hat on."
Harrison Ford: "Okay."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "That's happening in the film."

June 29, 2023
D23 INSIDE DISNEY PODCAST
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Harrison wasn't around then (our first day, in Glasgow) because he'd hurt his shoulder punching a Nazi, so we were all doing it without him, and his amazing stunt double Mike was sort of standing in for him. So that was one thing, but it became a whole other type of real once we came back to the studio and Harrison had healed his shoulder and suddenly we were there with the man himself."

June 29, 2023
GAMESRADAR
Kathleen Kennedy: "It's incredibly emotional, actually. I think for all of us that have been involved across all the movies, it didn't really hit us until probably Cannes, where we saw the movie with an audience and realized that this was really the culmination of so much work, and that we were saying goodbye to this iconic character. I think this was really more Steven and Harrison, they both felt very strongly that they hadn't really quite wrapped things up the way they wanted. More importantly, for Harrison and his character, he wanted a final chapter. He was ready. He's 80 years old but he's in great shape, very together. He wasn't quite ready to say goodbye - now he is. What's great about Harrison is he wouldn't have returned if he didn't have a story and a script that he really liked and really cared about. And that was what we talked about most of the time, was just trying to get this story right, trying to find, 'What are the values that mean so much to everybody who loves this series? How do we bring this to a closure that people really feel is significant and adds up to something?' And identifying this theme of time was really important. Once we had that, I think he was very invested in working on that. (Spielberg and Lucas) had a wealth of knowledge and experience of what went into these movies before. That was hugely beneficial to Jim. Jim was stepping into some very big shoes, and having them there and knowing that he had the two of them to ask questions if he needed it - same thing with John Williams being a part of this, and knowing that he had the maestro bringing back the music that we all know and love. That's what all three of them brought to this for Jim and for all of us, so that it feels like it's a very seamless transition."
Frank Marshall: "It's the mythology. Starting with the Ark of the Covenant, and what the mythology of that was, each movie has a single MacGuffin - or thing that Indy's trying to find - and the audience learns at the same time. It's not something that we make up. It's something that's there in history."
Kathleen Kennedy: "We always start in these story discussions (with), 'What is our MacGuffin? All of us have to become Indiana Jones when we ask that question, because what is so meaningful that he's going to devote his life and risk his life to trying to find it? And so that sends us always on a journey of discovery to figure out what that might be. Identifying this amazing machine of time, the Antikythera, and being able to go after that, and just the wonder surrounding what that was, and the fact that it was real, and that people believed in its power. That's what's been so great about the stories inside of Indiana Jones, you actually learn something. We're dealing with things that we haven't just made up out of whole cloth. It was one thing to read it and think about where we were going, (but) when we started to actually execute and see it, I remember feeling incredibly delighted. It went even beyond what I thought it was going to be on the page. That is the fun thing about making movies, because you do get surprised as a filmmaker. That's where the magic of movies happens. And I think that was very much something that happened with this."
Frank Marshall: "Seeing these things come to life is part of what's exciting about what we do. It's like having a big train set, and creating, and you're taking all these pieces and putting them together. I just love trains, and we always have a train in the movie. Seeing it come together is something that makes it so exciting after you've read it. (You can) picture it in your mind, but I have to say Jim really was great at creating these really amazing scenes with all the people that we have to work with, and that we collaborate with, and the art department, and the scenics, and the props, and the costumes and all that, and everybody comes together - and that's when it's fantastic, when you arrive on the set and here's this whole spectacular scene. That's when it really comes to life."
Kathleen Kennedy: "There's nothing better than to be involved in things that have a generational passing. What I've found that's so great about this movie coming out (is) the number of people I've talked to who've said, 'Oh, I couldn't wait to sit down and show my kids and have them see from Raiders on before they go and see this movie.' That's what's great. It's the same thing with Star Wars, that generational investment is something that I think people really value."
Frank Marshall: "We've also found that a whole lot of people were inspired to become archaeologists and go into science because Indy is such a likeable character, and he's so passionate about what he does. So that's really rewarding, too. There is one thing that people don't know, that when the Flying Wing in Raiders of the Lost Ark blows up, the pilot actually escaped," he jokes, referencing his own Raiders cameo. "And there's going to be a spin-off series starring me."
Kathleen Kennedy: "That'll be huge. 10 people will show up. We're in a culture now where I think that that's an expectation from the audience. They think, 'Oh, that's what's going to happen next.' Right now, we're all just very focused on just allowing this to have its moment and its time and be complete. And if we go on and do animation, or we carry on with Short Round - which certainly with Ke Huy Quan being so popular now coming off of Everything - and Phoebe, what a wonderful actress she is. So I would never sit here and say, 'Never say never.' But it's not something that we're in the midst of developing at the moment."

June 29, 2023
INSIDE TOTAL FILM
Harrison Ford: "I'm really going to encourage people to go to see this movie in a theater with their family. As far from your refrigerator as you can get. Go into a place with strangers. People you don't know, people who don't watch the same news that you do, maybe, or people that don't look like you or feel like you, and go into the dark and watch something together that's laughs and joy and heart and feel your common humanity."

June 29, 2023
KERMODE & MAYO'S TAKE PODCAST
James Mangold: "When I came onto this project, it seemed to me it still was without a script that had become solid. So the first task at hand was to try to figure out what is this movie about, and what do we have to say?"
Q: "No Mutt in the story, which some might be surprised at."
James Mangold: "Well, Mutt is in the story. But I understand. I'm not sure anyone would be surprised, honestly. (laughs)"
Q: "How do you write with the Butterworths?"
James Mangold: "Separately but together. Jez and John-Henry live in London, and I'm on the west coast of America, so almost all our time was spent, as most of the world (during the pandemic), in extended Zoom calls."

June 29, 2023
HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST
James Mangold: "The barrier that had had to be crossed is when I saw the script that they had, I realized why the thing hadn't gelled yet. There was nothing innately wrong with it, but it didn't seem to be about anything. Which is not necessarily out of the ordinary for movies these days. But for me, I just didn't know why I'd be making it other than the company and the IP and that the studio wanted another Indiana Jones movie. I didn't understand why it needed to exist. (They) had the movie dated in a way in which I had to generate a script for this movie that doesn't exist on paper yet in the next 24 days. So we need to push the picture. At that point it became a much bigger powwow. I said a year. They went away and I didn't hear from them for a few weeks, and then they came back and said okay."
Q: "There was the Ravenwood show that was being developed."
James Mangold: "I looked at what they were developing for that show, but I think it was it was purely speculative in terms of whether that show was going to happen. But it had nothing to do with Indiana Jones. It was the world, but it was not. (George Lucas) was involved and read the (Dial of Destiny) script."

June 29, 2023
TRUTH & MOVIES PODCAST
Mads Mikkelsen: "Did we spend maybe three or four weeks? Because it's on this train, we've got to keep track constantly, where are we. We have to jump back and forth obviously. It's shot up, and now it's blown up, and where's my hat, oh the suitcase is there. This is a no-brainer. It's Indiana Jones, I would have played a cat. We looked at photos of Wernher von Braun and were puzzled by the way he could just carry himself around, really dandy. Nobody questioned him."

June 29, 2023
DAGOBAH DISPATCH PODCAST
James Mangold: "Steven was someone I talked to all the way through shooting the film, and certainly he was around to see where I was going with cutting."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "She's his goddaughter. Poke me if I start saying too much."
James Mangold: "No, this is good."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "But then she has an agenda."
James Mangold: "She's lying."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "She's lying. Not about being his goddaughter, that's pretty true."

June 29, 2023
SENSACINE
Mads Mikkelsen: "The very first night shoot we had, wrapping at five in the morning, everybody just wants to go home and sleep, he goes out on his bike and he goes for 50 kilometers. I'm not sure he did it every day, he did it the first day just to show us."

June 29, 2023
USA TODAY
Harrison Ford: "I'm about to cry now. I cannot help to be moved by the incredible support these films have had. I feel grateful. If I occasionally feel emotional, I'm not embarrassed by it. So it's my mouth and my present-day eyes, but they put it on my face from 40 years ago. It's just absolutely amazing. It really works. I wanted to see this character who has been so undaunted by these perilous situations he's gotten himself into in the past, without those physical capacities. I wanted to see him dispirited, frankly, by the life he's living. (Phoebe) completely reinvigorates him for a new adventure. Ms. Waller did not understand what I meant by a slap in the belly with a wet fish. And we were sitting on a set that happened to have a lot of wet fish. So I was able to show you what a slap in the belly with a wet fish is like."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "I got the biggest fish I could find and dragged it over. The props people even gave me a butcher's vest."
Harrison Ford: "And she whacked the (stuffing) out of me. I loved it."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "There was no ambition to be slick or good at it. That was such a relief for me. My character is so impulsive that she'd jump without thinking about it. And that gave it a sort of freshness. (Ford) was bordering on 80 at the time. That's not the kind of person you smack in the face."
James Mangold: "Literally, he just took a swing, and then went, Hmm. He had torn something. So we were down for a month."
Harrison Ford: "We haven't seen a New York police horse running down a subway platform before. All in a day's work for Indiana Jones."
Q: "Do you keep one (hat) handy in your house, and how do we know it's actually fully retired?"
Harrison Ford: "You can't know, because you have no idea what I do in my house. And if I dress up in Indiana Jones clothes and do certain things with my wife, that's not really anything to do with you. It's not your business. It's my house."

June 29, 2023
INVERSE
James Mangold: "It's almost a rule of Indiana Jones movies that the power of the relic becomes the third act of the movie when it gets unleashed in whatever form it reveals itself. I always find it interesting as I get reactions to the movies that people are kind of going, wow, you really took a big swing in the end. And I'm like, really! Because opening a box and having 300 fang-filled ghosts emerge, blow up Nazi heads, melt their brains, but leave our heroes alone as the clouds open up and the contents of the box get sucked into the cumulonimbus cloud hovering above an island, that's small? A 2000-year-old knight from the round table living in a cave, defying all rules of probability and longevity, waiting for them to face a magical challenge in a well? All of these things seem stupendous to me. The real answer you're looking for is: the theme of the movie was time. My Indy is a 70-year-old Indy, and so I wanted not just time in the sense of travel, but time in the sense of, I can't undo the mistakes of my past. I can't be the guy I was then because the world has changed around me. Time and all its facets that catch up with us as we get older. I would never make this choice without ruminating over lots of choices. The other interesting thing was that one of the things I thought about was even if we did travel in time, would Mads' theory be right and they'd land in Nazi Germany? And the last act of the movie would be Indy trying to foil Mads' plan? But the more I sketched that out in my mind, the more that became kind of just a spy movie at the end. I couldn't find a way to emotional resonance. It occurred to me that we've been talking about three different time periods a lot in the movie: 1968, 1944, and 200 BC. So why don't we go there? Because that's the only one I've been hearing a lot about but I haven't seen. The idea immediately moved me. Indy's character would suddenly be faced with something he's only imagined all his life. The reality of something he's been only looking at through the keyhole of history and artifacts and is suddenly in it. And what a powerful moment that might be for Harrison himself to play."

June 29, 2023
INDIAN EXPRESS
James Mangold: "We all face ageing and death. We all face the world changing around us and having to adapt. In Logan's case, he was about 250 years old when he passed. Frankly, I am bored with movies about beautiful people who are indestructible. I think that it's just a snooze. Honestly, I have no connection to it. I am not beautiful and I am not indestructible. So the reality is, it's just kind of simple. (They) a couple of smart lines and then the thing ends. But I don't know what was ever at stake for these people's hearts in the movie. We have got into movies where these characters are just like Teflon. When you are stepping onto a movie that people perceive is about a hero, which is true for Wolverine and Indiana Jones, the idea is to try and position the hero in the first act of your story in a place where it is not so easy for them to be that person anymore. And, because it automatically puts them in a crisis that makes the drama dramatic. (I didn't want Ford) just playing capability in every scene. What's really interesting for him is to walk into a scene without the tools he needs to survive. That's the problem we are more interested in playing. My first interest wasn't to try and bend something that is working so well to my will but was rather to have fun in this sandbox that George and Steven and Harrison and so many others have created. I often think that we don't have to think about what we are bringing to ourselves. So if I am going to bring who I am, it's going to happen. I don't have to actualise it. I don't have to make a ground plan for that. As a bunch of collaborators working together, even though the director's chair was filled by someone different, the previous director was a text away and watching everything daily and was developing the script with us as well. These are the people who all see and cherish the same things. These are movies not about superheroes or indestructible souls but extremely vulnerable souls who just happen to be brave on this day and are taking on the enemy. We were writing it for (Phoebe) even though we had no idea that she would do it. We were writing it became very clear that we were writing about a father who lost his son and a daughter who lost her father and as Harrison said at a platonic level but also on an important level that each one needed the other emotionally at some point of the story. She bought a lot of energy and crackle. She is a writer herself, she is a brilliant dramatic or a comedic actress. When we both watched her two seasons of Fleabag that she created and starred in, (we saw) that she has a unique modern ability but also one I have seen in classic old actresses of the golden age. To be both charming and dangerous. Someone you are desperate to fall in love with but you know it might destroy you at the same time."

June 30, 2023
IGN
Harrison Ford: "Something I've always tried to do is to make sure that in that context of action, there's also character development going on. I want the audience to see the fear of a man who supposedly has no fear, who's fearless. Nonsense, nobody's fearless. I don't want to hear hero in the same context with something I'm doing because nobody's a hero until it has to be done. I want to be an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances who behaves well. In every film, there are many, many moments, but really those moments are just moments in a chain of moments that are a story. I wanted the story to end my experience with Indiana Jones by telling the last part of his story, the part of his story where you see the effect of the life that he's lived on him in a very honest way, and that the world has changed around him. Then I want to see him pull himself out of the mud one more time."

June 30, 2023
VARIETY
James Mangold: "I couldn't find a way to wrap my head around going back to the past and stopping Mads from doing his nefarious deeds to continue the Third Reich. It lacked wonder and was going to turn into kind of a cat and mouse thing. I felt like we'd be better off if that's what people are anticipating, but that we really pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes at the last minute. You're going to have to see the (device's) power. He's suddenly in the midst of it. I also thought it presented us with a kind of audacious turn which I thought was a staple of these movies. He's suddenly in the midst of it. I also thought it presented us with a kind of audacious turn which I thought was a staple of these movies. It's no more of a wild swing in my mind than ghouls flying out of a box and melting people's heads through the sheer power of dark angels, or a 700-year-old knight existing in a cave for perpetuity. These are all beyond the scope of all physical belief. That seemed to me to be right emotionally. A disillusioned hero could end up at this wonderful tumultuous moment in world history and, with his son gone and his wife gone, that he'd picture himself staying in the place he loves best, which is this imagining these worlds. (Mutt's fate is) separate from all past studio, political intrigue on movies I didn't make. You were either going to make a movie all about the two of them or you're going to have to find a way to not have (Mutt) around, because he was too significant a player in the previous film to just pretend he didn't exist. I didn't think his whole thing worked that well in the previous film. I just went towards something else because it was what was more interesting to me. Unless we established (Indy) healing and setting up shop and remarrying and finding a beautiful Sicilian house to live in, I guess there was a way of doing it, but I didn't imagine it. I felt like he had to come home. He had to clean things up. He had to own what happened to him and Marion, and the amount of loneliness and disappointment in himself he's carrying about his inability to navigate that between them. (Karen's) so wonderful. She's such a beautiful soul. And I can't imagine how hard it was for her because she's stepping into a movie that had been shooting for a long time. But it was really moving to me. I thought (their dialogue) was just brilliant. I didn't know what to do. It just seemed like a gift the second (the Butterworths) showed me this idea. It's one of the great encapsulations of their relationship and a memory that everyone knows the second they hear that, 'Where?' They remember that movie."

June 30, 2023
CHRIS MOYLES PODCAST
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "What was your favorite bit?"
Q: "The bit in space."
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "Me too."
Harrison Ford: "He's still got to catch up with his past. He's got to redeem himself for some of the bumptious mistakes of his life. And we feel that coming. And I think it's a wonderful feeling to see him come round the corner here and have this last great adventure and see him emotionally whole again."

June 30, 2023
FILM STORIES WITH SIMON BREW PODCAST
James Mangold: "There was a day about a month into production when we were shooting all the scenes that took place in his apartment in New York. Well it wasn't one day, it was a week. Of course there's a long schedule, and I've accrued some measure of power and confidence of those who put money in my films. Meaning that I haven't tended to go over, I haven't tended to make disasters financially. So there's a certain measure of leeway you get to play without too many people looking over your shoulder and asking what you're doing, which is a joy, especially on a film as large as this. Kathy Kennedy would come in every few days and check in on me. It felt more playful than any movie I had ever made. Kathy Kennedy called and said, can I come see you. Kathy surprised me with this idea. And Harrison then cleaned up, and Steven asked me to come visit him in the valley. By the time I had come to the third meeting with Steven, I had already been puzzling about this and I started to tell him what I was thinking. The thing where I felt like I was onto something was where I think they had gotten stuck with the project on a script level. You have to have a reason to make a movie. And that reason can't just, well it certainly can be to make money. That is most often the reason movies are made, especially bigger ones. But I can't do that. I like money, but the reality is, the actual act of making something hollow and meaningless for cash, for two to three years of my life, when I could also make money making something meaningful, being imprisoned in a hollow movie is a kind of purgatory no one wants. The script supervisor, Sheila Waldron, is a miracle worker. Most people don't know what a script supervisor does, but they're kind of the right hand of a director. And making a movie as complex as this with as many moving parts, by the end I had three stages working at the same time, and I was running from one to the other with her. She's keeping track of all the s*** I'm making. And not only that, but probably telling me when I'm so exhausted and don't know I'd just done a really s*** take that I should go again. Script supervisor is an incredible place of learning because you are at the absolute nerve center of the film, and right beside the director when every decision is getting made."

June 30, 2023
BBC RADIO 1 GREG JAMES PODCAST
Phoebe Waller-Bridge: "(Ford) has such a wit and poetry to him to calm people down and make people feel at ease. I think he's been really moved by this whole experience. And I think it is actually the fans who do it for him. The final scene, we were both in wet suits in a paddling pool in Pinewood. We both had massive 1960s diving goggles on. And it was one of the more surreal days. And Harrison was sort of drawn out of this paddling pool and put on the top of a ladder, dripping wet in a wet suit. And all the crew came round and everyone was sort of emotional, and he was up there in his wet suit, just said thank you to everybody. It was really moving, and there was something so absurd about it, the other crew just applauding him and him thanking everybody so much for their hard work."

June 30, 2023
RINGER-VERSE PODCAST
James Mangold: "This is the ending we wrote two years ago, and no. When you start writing anything, you don't know exactly how you're going to land it, you just keep working. And there were moments where I thought maybe there were going to end up going back to Germany, and he'll stop Mads from doing what he's doing. But it felt like we already did that with the opening. So I'm just going to be doing a reprise of the same action you saw at the beginning. I never really considered him staying because it would have been a kind of suicide by time warp, and kind of grim, like is he really going to be happy, watching people haul dung around in carts, and slaves, serfs? No. And what use is that knowledge to him if he's trapped in the time it's happening. It seemed to me that the most powerful thing we can say about growing older, about Indy, about all of it, is that it's family. It's who we love."

June 30, 2023
EMPIRE MAGAZINE PODCAST
Kathleen Kennedy: "We're in a culture now where everybody talks about how there's not an end to anything, it feels like. Because these were very standalone stories. It's really Harrison who kept saying, I don't know, I just don't feel that this is quite over. And it was up to him. (Recasting) is not going to happen. No. We were struggling with a story. These are not easy, figuring out what the MacGuffin is, and is there a real reason to do another, and why are you doing another. Once Steven did step aside, we really were quite fortunate because Harrison and Jim had worked together briefly on Call of the Wild, when Jim stepped in to do some reshoots on that. He brought in the Butterworths, who are such wonderful writers, and the story just started to click. That's why it started to fall into place, and it gained momentum. You're always looking for that. Do you feel real momentum, and can you sustain that? This combination of people definitely did that."
Frank Marshall: "It never occurred to me (to direct). Steven was there, and almost instantly Jim was there."
Kathleen Kennedy: "In rehearsal Harrison threw his arm out, and suddenly we were in hiatus and all looking at one another. So we had luckily spent time working on the train sequence in the beginning. That was the primary thing we were focusing on. There's a lot of pieces shooting that. And when he threw his arm out, he of course was like, oh I'm fine, I can shoot, I can keep shooting. And we're all horrified. And he's got his sling on, and he's still showing up, he's still doing shots. So between Covid and his arm in a sling, it was a little slow going in the beginning. But as I've often found out, these hiatuses can often help. I think for Indy it did. We said that to Harrison, when you come back, get ready, cause you're in every day (of shooting), and he was amazing. Now, there's so much built in expectation on every single thing you do."
Frank Marshall: "Data. Everything's based on data (these days), and not the heart."
Kathleen Kennedy: "I think there is a vulnerability right now. Even though Harrison's doing an amazing amount of work right now in addition to Indy. This character, I think even more than Han Solo to some extent, I think he just feels very close to. "

June 30, 2023
VARIETY
Karen Allen: "I think because the last time you see Indy and Marion, they’ve gotten married - I don’t know that I thought we’d pick up from where we left off, but I did always imagine that it would be a story with Indy and Marion going forward. When Steven was going to direct the film, I think the scripts were more focused on an Indy/Marion story. But when Steven stepped aside and James came in, he started fresh with new writers and they just went in the direction they went in. They were going to tell a different story. That’s not to say that I had ever read a script that Steven was working on, because I hadn’t. But I just knew from conversations that we’d had that the ongoing story had involved Marion in a much bigger way than the story that they ended up with. I was disappointed, of course. I knew that there had been talk that they did not want to go forward with Shia, so I knew that something in the story had to create the potential for him to not be there in a way that made sense. I didn’t know that he was going to die in Vietnam until I read the script, oh gosh, maybe just it was maybe six months before they were going to start shooting. I was deeply happy that Marion came back at least the end of their story. If this is indeed truly the last film of this particular group of films - if this is the last story with Harrison as Indy and me as Marion - I was profoundly happy that it didn’t end without them coming back together. That meant a lot to me, to feel like they were going to ride off in the sunset together. I think I was [shooting] for two days. But they wanted me to come out early and have plenty of time to play with the costume designer. We had decided to put me in a gray wig that had been built for me, but James and I hadn’t seen it. So I came out about two weeks early. It was nice, because I hung out on the set a bit and got to watch them shooting and got to meet everyone. You know, Phoebe was there, and John Rhys-Davies, and Harrison, and that lovely young man, Ethann. It just gave me a chance to move back into that world a little bit without just jumping onto the set to shoot. It was pretty great, I have to say. I think Harrison was very, very happy that we were going to do this scene. We just kind of jumped into it. I had watched James Mangold working with the actors for quite a few days when I went to the set, and I just had a wonderful feeling about him as a director. Very clear, very straightforward, you know, full of energy and fun. I had a sense that I would work with him well. For me, it was a wonderful day. Everybody came up to me afterwards and said, oh my God, that was just my favorite, I just loved seeing the two of you come back together. So it had a kind of sweetness to it. It was great. It’s such a brief little scene and I think there is this sense of trying to put so much into it somehow. But it was lovely that they were able to bring the grief that Marion had been through with the loss of her son and just little moments like that all into that one little moment in the film. I always (consider offscreen character history). I’m a very rigorous actor in that way. I love to just delve into what their history was. I wasn’t given a lot of information in the script. We know Mutt has been killed; we know it drove a wedge between them. But we don’t know much else. So I usually sit down and write a little bit of history and think it through. It was just a sense that they had not seen each other for a while and that there was a real sense of them grieving in very different ways, as I know people do when they lose a child. I liked the thought of coming into that room without really knowing what I was gonna find or whether it was the right thing to do. But I think Marion at that point maybe has come to some decisions herself about whether or not she wants this to be the end of the relationship. Absolutely (I would be interested in playing Marion again). I don’t necessarily think that that is something that’s going to happen, but it would be delightful to play her again. I mean, I feel like I didn’t really have the opportunity in this film to take her into this later part of her of her life. It would be incredible to be able to explore who she is and who she’s become. I don’t know. They’re so interwoven with each other, I can’t imagine someone creating a film that revolved around Marion without Indy, but never say never. It could always happen!"

June 30, 2023
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Karen Allen: "This time, it was short but sweet. It's very brief. But it was lovely to come in at the end and to see these characters come together and be back together. Well, there was such a shifting and changing of things, because I believe, although I never read a script, when Steven Spielberg was going to direct it, it was quite a different story and quite a different script. Most of the time I was just waiting to a point in which I was going to be reading a script, and knowing how Marion would be a part of the story. When it shifted over to James Mangold directing and suddenly he brought in new writers, the Butterworth brothers, then I really had no idea whether I would be in the film or not. It was a fresh start. I think it was when they felt their script was finally finished that it came to me, and they had written this role at the end of the film for Marion to come back. I can't say that there wasn't initial disappointment in the sense that I wasn't more a part of the adventure of this story. But simultaneously, there was a sense of gratitude that Marion was going to come back into the story, and that if this is indeed the last film of this series, that it ended on a very upbeat note for her character. Because she's such a vibrant, wonderful character, and it would've broken my heart to see her just vanish into the ether. I was down for whatever, in whatever way they wanted to bring her back into the story. I was 100% there. Even though we only shot one or two days, I arrived two weeks beforehand. They wanted me to come, because we had talked about maybe having a wig where I would have gray hair, and they wanted time to figure out the costume and stuff. I went over and visited the set a whole bunch of times while they were shooting, which was nice because I got to get a feel for what was going on and see some old friends, which is great. And I got to meet James Mangold for the first time. We'd had conversations on the phone, but we'd actually never met, so that was great. I was actually hoping (Spielberg) might be there when I was there so we could just say hi. But he wasn't. Although, James seemed very much at home in that world. When Steven stepped down and James was going to be the director, and it was being announced, I had a conversation with Steven and he said, oh my God, you're going to love working with him. Just wait. He's wonderful. And he was. I had just a beautiful time working with him. It was certainly emotional doing (the final scenes). I saw it once in a screening in New York, and the first time I see a film, I honestly have to say I don't really see what's on the screen. I'm more in the actual memory of doing it. So I don't even trust my reactions or my responses or anything until I've seen something more than once, at the very least. But it's so sweet. And the way that they wrote it where we bring back in a little theme from Raiders of Lost Ark was lovely. It was just nice. I have always said, and I don't know if Harrison feels the same way, but I suspect he does, that these two are really the love of each other's life. I came to really appreciate that the story they wanted to tell was that this wedge had been driven between them, and in spite of that they have found their way back to each other. The crew at the end of it when we finally finished shooting was all very emotional. I certainly felt emotional, and I think Harrison did too, in the sense that we felt like we were putting this period or exclamation point at the end of their story, which was lovely. Maybe in terms of the cinema I've said goodbye to Marion. Marion, she's just one of those characters for me who I think will always be a part of my life. I think most actors have one or two films that they become very identified with, and Marion is certainly one of those for me. I think that it is just such a strong character that when I'm out in the world, just in my day-to-day life, that character resonates for people to such an extent that I'm constantly being identified with that character in a lovely way, in a way that is certainly not problematic."
Q: "Where do you see Indy and Marion going from here?"
Karen Allen: "Well, I think that was the conversation certainly that I had with Kathleen Kennedy and with James Mangold and Harrison to some extent, was that, yes, there's this feeling that they've come back together and that they're going to be together for the rest of their lives. If they can work their way through the pain of the death of their son and come back together. He's retired. The film has beautifully brought their lives - we don't know much about Marion's life in the interim - but it's brought them back together. And it feels to me complete at the end."

June 30, 2023
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
James Mangold: "(Indy is never) giving up. I don't think he'll ever stop digging. And when he takes the hat off the clothesline, I think it's because, first of all, you shouldn't put hats on clotheslines. And second of all, no, I don't think he's done. I think that an ending doesn't mean that the characters never move again in their lives. It just means that you feel that you've entered a state of grace with their story. I think he'll wake up tomorrow and want to do something. But whether he's going into battling Nazis through time portals again, I don't think so. But I could really imagine him and Marion going on a road trip to some Inca dig or to some dig in Montana or North Dakota and renting a cabin. And I could see him really enjoying his life as a retired archeologist. Indy and Harrison are so close together, and Harrison will never retire, and I don't think Indy will (either). He retires as a teacher, but I don't think he will retire from being an obsessive learner, thinker about the past and the future, and science and mankind. I think that the second he stops thinking about that, I think it's game over. (Kill him,) how could I have done that? I think everyone, particularly, because I made Logan and wrote it as well, there was a lot of anxiety that I was just going to turn into the icon executioner. Honestly, I enjoy that people were so atwitter about it, because to me, there really is no attraction to just getting thousands of people in a theater and hitting them in a head with a hammer. Death is not an ending. But for Indiana Jones, it isn't about him dying. It had to be about him coming to terms with this period of his life and this period of the world. And in a way, coming to terms with whether Indiana Jones has relevance to ours."
Harrison Ford: "(We never discussed death) because the script came out, and it didn't have Indiana Jones dying, so we didn't really need to talk about it. It came up in conversation a few times, and Jim said he didn't want to be the one to kill me. I think it's a good choice to leave him in the condition we see him at the end of the film. Most of his problems have been solved, dealt with. He's back to the form that we like to see him in, I think. And I think it's a wonderful last scene. I really like it."