Revealed: How it Took Harrowing Plane Crash to Let Harrison Ford Tap into Emotions on Screen — And How He Told Co-Star In Death Scene About Near-Fatal Accident
Harrison Ford's co-star believes his 2015 plane crash impacted his acting abilities.
Feb. 11 2025, Published 7:30 p.m. ET
Harrison Ford's near-death experience has had a lasting impact on him – and impacted his acting career by allowing him to tap into a deeper range of emotions for certain scenes, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Ford's 1923 co-star Helen Mirren confessed he opened up to her about his harrowing plane crash while they were working on a death scene on the Yellowstone spin-off.
Ford has been a licensed pilot since 1996 and began taking flying lessons in the 1960s.
Ford has been a licensed pilot since 1996 and began taking flying lessons in the 1960s.
While flying one day in March 2015, his aircraft's engine suddenly lost power, forcing him to make an emergency landing at Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California.
The actor was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was treated for a broken pelvis and a broken ankle.
Ford made an emergency landing after his plane's engine suddenly lost power while flying in March 2015.
Mirren revealed she noticed something changed in Ford when they reunited for Taylor Sheridan's TV Western. The pair first met when they played husband and wife in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast.
At the time, the 79-year-old actress said Ford wasn't concerned with being famous, but "something magical" has changed in him nearly 10 years after the incident.
Helen Mirren said the crash gave Ford a 'very different understanding of what it is to be a sentient human being.'
She said: "Something rather magical has happened to Harrison, especially with his history of, you know, being the dude, the bloke, the fabulous action guy, the funny guy, the cool guy.
"Now there’s this open road to his inner feelings, which he is absolutely unafraid of expressing. It’s just a true, quick, instinctive emotional reaction to things, without sentimentality."
Mirren suggested surviving the emergency landing had a lot to do with the change she witnessed in her co-star – and confessed he spoke to her about the incident after they filmed a particularly grisly scene on the show.
The actress explained they had just filmed a scene in which there was an ambush on the Dutton ranch that left Ford's character Jacob bloodied and suffering from gunshot wounds.
She added: "He's been carried into the kitchen, dying and covered in blood, and later Harrison did say to me, 'That was how I was after the accident.'
"I think, maybe, going through that experience just gave him a very different understanding of what it is to be a sentient human being."
Sources said Ford was 'fuming' over Taylor Sheridan's decision to end the TV Western after two seasons.
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As RadarOnline.com reported, the 82-year-old star apparently wasn't ready to hang up his hat on the Western – and was said to be "fuming" at Sheridan over his decision to end the series before the second season aired.
On Sheridan's decision to end the hit show, an insider said: "Taylor feels like he told the story he wanted to tell and is done with it. He's sticking to his guns even though he got a lot of pressure to continue, since 1923 is a big moneymaker."
Sources claimed some pressure has come from Ford, who was said to be making around $1million per episode and enjoyed the convenience of being able to fly to the Montana set from his nearby home in Jackson Hole.
insiders also claimed "Harrison loved the physical demands the show put on him."
They explained: "At his age, it was good incentive to stay in shape. Harrison grew up loving Western movies and TV shows, and getting paid millions to play cowboy was just catnip to him."
