Ford advised Rolling Stone that after working in summer season inventory in Wisconsin and flunking out of faculty proper earlier than he graduated, he first thought-about being an actor for a residing. He mentioned he flipped a coin to resolve between New York and Los Angeles as locations for his new profession, then flipped it once more so he may go to L.A. as a result of “I wasn’t gonna starve and freeze.” Strong reasoning proper there.

He bought a contract with Columbia Photos, however he mentioned they had been paying little or no and had been attempting “to re-create stars the best way it had been performed within the ’50s. They despatched me to get my hair pompadoured like Elvis Presley, all that s*** for $150 per week.” He was let go a yr and a half into his seven-year contract — not that this stopped him from performing. He simply started working as a carpenter to help his household, constructing his own residence, and even making a recording studio for Sergio Mendes. On the similar time, he did movies like “The Dialog” with Francis Ford Coppola and the TV film “The Court docket Martial of Lt. Calley.” 

As I discussed, he continued with carpentry, even after working with George Lucas in “American Graffiti.” Ford advised an viewers at a 2014 Cinequest panel that he turned down the primary “American Graffiti” wage supply as a result of constructing issues paid higher. Oddly sufficient, the very non-sci-fi work in carpentry was a part of his getting the position of Han Solo.