Ford drawn to ‘Extraordinary’ story

Actor played large role in bringing film shot partly in Vancouver to screens

CHICAGO — At 67, Harrison Ford still retains that roguish, lopsided grin that seems poised somewhere between a sneer and a smirk. He’s officially a senior citizen now. His gray hair is thinning slightly and his face is lined with age. But the man who became an icon as Indiana Jones and Han Solo says he’s nowhere near retirement. He continues to make movies, he explains, because he simply wants to feel useful.

“I don’t feel useful on the golf course or in Florida or in Arizona sitting on the back patio sipping iced tea,” he says. “I feel useful on a movie set.”

Ford is making himself useful these days, traveling the country to promote his latest film, “Extraordinary Measures,” which opens Jan. 22. The movie is based on the true story of New Jersey entrepreneur John Crowley — played by Brendan Fraser— who raised millions in capital and started a biotech company to develop a life-saving drug for his two young children, both of whom suffer from a rare genetic disease.

Ford plays an unconventional scientist whose discoveries are thought to be the key to finding a cure.

Coming to Chicago for a red-carpet premiere last week was a bit of a homecoming for Ford, who lived in an Uptown apartment until he was about 11 and who later moved with his family to the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. At the restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday morning, Ford looks trim and handsome as he sips a cup of green tea and talks briefly of hometown memories.

Dressed in a tailored black suit and a cashmere sweater, Ford says he vividly recalls his family’s first-floor apartment near the corner of Sunnyside Avenue and Sheridan Road, in a building where he and a friend once pulled a string across the courtyard to make a tin-can telephone. “It worked great,” he says, with a grin. “We got in trouble when the line sagged and somebody almost caught their head on it walking into their apartment.”

o “Extraordinary Measures” was shot at locations around the Portland metro area, including Big Al’s bowling center off Northeast 162nd Avenue and the former offices of The Columbian across from Esther Short Park.

o The Columbian office building was used for interior shots of a pharmaceutical company’s headquarters; Big Al’s was used for a birthday party scene.

o The scenes were shot in May and June.

So yes, he has a certain fondness for Chicago. “I’ve always loved the city, and it’s gotten better while I’ve been gone,” he says, speaking in a subdued baritone. “I like coming back. I don’t feel like I know the city as well as I used to. I wish I did. I don’t get around much when I get here.”

Ford doesn’t spend too much time thinking about the old days. He notes he’s “not a nostalgic guy.” True to his word, Ford quickly gets down to business, ready to turn the conversation toward his most recent role, which is a “different character,” he admits, than the ones he usually plays. In this film, he doesn’t don a fedora or crack any whips; he doesn’t accelerate into hyperspace or toss a terrorist off Air Force One.

What attracted him to this latest project?

“It’s a fascinating modern story,” he says.

The real-life events that became the basis of the film first caught his attention six years ago, he explains, when a literary agent pointed out a series of stories in The Wall Street Journal by Geeta Anand. The articles followed the quest of Crowley, a one-time financial consultant, who — after being told that his two children had a fatal illness called Pompe disease — quit his job, borrowed against his house, pursued scientists and eventually launched a company, all in an effort to develop a miracle treatment.

Ford says the newspaper stories “grabbed me emotionally.” That initial reaction got to what Ford says he thinks is the very purpose of film making. “I’ve always felt that the whole object of movies is to provide emotional exercise,” he says.

He became a champion for the project, signing on as executive producer, meeting with the Crowleys, helping to select the screenwriter, carving out a part for himself and helping to shape the script. It was a challenging project, he says, noting that he didn’t want the film to become too “sentimental” or “weepy.”

Facts were tweaked, the timeline was condensed and multiple scientists were rolled into one character, played by Ford.

Press materials say the film is “inspired by” real events. Despite changes, Ford feels that “we were truthful to the necessary elements.”

The Crowley family couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

“We think it absolutely captures the spirit and dynamics of the family,” said John Crowley, adding that the movie is making an “enormous difference” in efforts to raise awareness about Pompe disease, which affects just 5,000 to 10,000 worldwide. Crowley hopes that such awareness might lead to greater funding and breakthroughs for Pompe and other rare diseases. The Crowley children, Megan and Patrick, now 13 and 11 respectively, still take the drug featured in the film. “It saved their lives,” Crowley says.

They’re still in wheelchairs and require ventilators to breathe, but they’re smart kids, who attend public school and plan to go on to college.

As for Ford’s future, there is word that a script for another Indiana Jones movie is in the works. But Ford makes it clear that he’ll also make time for smaller projects. “From the very beginning of my career, I’ve used the occasions where movies have been successful to do something different,” he says. He mentions “The Mosquito Coast” (1986), a dark variation on “Swiss Family Robinson,” and “The Frisco Kid” (1979), a quirky comedy/Western.

In the end, he says he’s happiest when he’s busy and working. By doing a blockbuster one year, and a more limited release the next, he hopes to keep things interesting and, he says with a smile, “extend my useful life.”