Harrison Ford admits he could have been a ‘better parent’ as he celebrates youngest son’s graduation

Harrison Ford doesn’t share much about his family, but he admitted he has had some parenting regrets. 

He revealed he thinks things may have been different for his family if he was not a famous actor.

“I can tell you this: If I’d been less successful, I’d probably be a better parent,” he told Esquire.

The 80-year-old star noted in the interview that the quote may draw attention like his other recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which he said, “I know who the f— I am.”

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“Which I still get s— about from my wife, like I don’t take mental health seriously,” he said of the headline-making interview. “I do take mental health seriously. I was trying to say, as I explained to her: It’s that I accommodate all of the flaws that people go to psychiatrists to accommodate, because I accept my flaws.” 

“I accept my flaws and my failures — I don’t accept them, I own them. And certainly the more constant gardener is the better parent, and I’ve been out of town, up my own ass, for most of my life.”

The issue of parenting became central to his character on AppleTV+’s series “Shrinking,” which Ford stars in alongside Jason Segel as a therapist with an estranged daughter.

“It is a bit of a shock to discover that there are things that a writer can bring to a script that you recognize as a shadow of your own experience. You don’t necessarily actively draw on some specific thing that happened to you — but it’s in the bank, and you want to spend it,” he said.

“I mean, you don’t want to take your kid’s life and make that the currency, so you try and separate that. But I’ve got a daughter in ‘Shrinking’ whose mother said I had spent all my time working, and then when the daughter says she’s going to split for the East Coast, my character says, ‘Well, I’ve got responsibilities here. I have a life!’ And I don’t go with her.

“That’s the s— that happens, and somewhere there’s a reference in my life and I think, ‘Are they stealing, f—ing, my life here?’ But you discover that you’ve had these experiences, but someone else has, too,” he explained.

Ford is a father of five, with sons Ben, 55, and Willard, 54, from his first marriage to Mary Marquardt; son Malcolm, 35, and daughter Georgia, 31, from his second marriage to Melissa Mathison; and son Liam, whom he adopted after he married Calista Flockhart.

Flockhart and Ford celebrated Liam’s college graduation over the weekend.

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The family was seen at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where Liam, 22, attended school and received his diploma.

As a graduate of Amherst, Liam received a cane, a long-standing tradition by the university symbolizing a connection to his class and alma mater. It serves as “a metaphor for a college education, as they support graduates throughout their lives.” 

Flockhart adopted Liam in 2001 before she met Ford. The couple met in 2009 and married the following year, with Ford later adopting Liam.

During his recent interview, Ford noted that his habit of cursing has upset his wife.

After he blurted out “f—in’ A,” he smiled and asked the reporter, “Hey, if you don’t mind, leave the ‘f—in’ A’ out. My wife is still giving me s— about that Hollywood Reporter thing, and I’m trying not to say that too much.” 

But he admitted he felt comfortable and casual in the talk with the THR reporter.

“Me and the writer were sitting on folding chairs in a horse stall. It didn’t feel like a formal enough atmosphere to have to clean up my language,” he said. “And they printed every single f—.”

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Cleaning up his language is one project that will have to wait as Ford remains busy as ever. 

There’s his TV series, “Shrinking,” and “1923,” the Yellowstone spinoff, as well as the currently filming “Captain America” sequel and the soon-to-be released fifth Indiana Jones film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

When asked why he’d do another Indiana Jones movie as he was pushing 80, Ford said, “I wanted an ambitious movie to be the last one.

“And I don’t mean that we didn’t make ambitious movies before. They were ambitious in many different ways. But not necessarily as ambitious with the character as I wanted the last one to be.”

Ford also starred in another iconic franchise — “Star Wars” — and he set the record straight on how he came to be cast as Han Solo when the first film was still in its early stages in the late 1970s.

Ford had recently appeared in George Lucas’ second feature film, “American Graffiti,” but was still a struggling actor with a family to support. 

To make ends meet, he worked as a carpenter and had a job at director Francis Ford Coppola’s house, but “only at night, when no one was around, because I didn’t want to be that guy. I wanted them to think of me as an actor, which I was. I did the job.

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“While I’m finishing up, first thing in the morning in walked George Lucas and Richard Dreyfuss to begin the process of meeting people for ‘Star Wars.’ George had told our agents he wanted new faces, not the same people from ‘American Graffiti.’ I was there with my tool belt on, sweeping up, said hello, chatted and that was it.

“Later, I was asked by the producer to help them read lines with candidates for all the parts. Don’t know whether I read with people who were reading for Han Solo — can’t remember. I read with quite a few princesses. But there was no indication or forewarning that I might be considered for this part. It was just a favor. And then, of course, they offered me the part.”

Ford became Han Solo, and later Indiana Jones, kicking off a career that has seen him do a wide range of roles, from “Blade Runner” to “Air Force One.”

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But the actor told the outlet he has no intention of writing a memoir “because I don’t want to tell the truth, and I don’t want to lie.”

Ultimately, Ford doesn’t want to be defined solely by his career in show business. His other passion, aviation, is just as important, if not more.

“I will not be buried under a stone that says actor,” Ford said. “For me, flying is as important a part of my life as my business. It’s not like playing golf.”

Ford spoke about his work with Young Eagles, an organization that holds events with pilots to take kids up in planes to spur their interest in flying.

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“When we take a kid up, we’re actually investing his voting mother and father in general aviation, which is different from commercial aviation. People don’t understand both the value and the contribution to the economy, and the community, that general aviation provides,” he said.

“It’s a whole community of people who contribute to the economy who are getting squeezed out because the government would rather concentrate on commercial aviation. And we have been beset by losing airports for the economic opportunity that they present in another form.”