It wasn't tension, but humor, that Ford brought to last month's Golden Globes telecast. He had a cocktail in hand when he walked on stage with Madsen to present the best movie screenplay award. He passed the drink over to a bemused Madsen so he could open the envelope.
"I was holding it actually for, oh my god, I'm just all of a sudden blanking," he said, scowling. "Emma Thompson. I was holding a drink for Emma, who was in the green room. I was having a wee tipple, as is the case at the Golden Globes. It's one show where there is always a drink on the table. So, Emma said she would have a drink when she came offstage, and I was holding the drink for her, and then she went off the other side, and there was no place to put it or hand it off, so I forgot I had it until I got halfway across the stage."
Befitting the cool characters he plays in the movies (including police detective John Book, his 1986 Oscar-nominated role in Witness), Ford handled the Golden Globes moment with aplomb.
"Thank you," he said.
In the film Manhunt, due out in 2007, he will play Everton Conger, the real-life army detective who hunted down John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of former US president Abraham Lincoln.
And, as soon as the script is completed, he'll step back into the boots of archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg will again direct. There is no working title yet, and Ford isn't divulging the plot.
"Hopefully we'll be able to go fairly soon. The movie is eagerly anticipated, and it's fun to work with Steven.
"I like to work," he said. "I enjoy the process. Whether the movie turns out, or not, it's fun to work."
Particularly when there's a big-screen fight scene with his name on it.
"It makes a nice change to work up a sweat."
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