Movies - TV
Harrison Ford Insisted He Know Nothing About This Fugitive Scene Before Filming
By DEVIN MEENAN
The opening scenes of 1993’s “The Fugitive” reveal how Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) became the titular character, showing the good doctor's trial, questioning, sentencing, and escape within 20 minutes. The character’s reactions in the interrogation scene were extra authentic for two reasons: who wrote the questions and when Ford heard them.
Kimble is questioned by two detectives, Rossetti (Joseph Kosala) and Kelly (Ron Dean), who act with slightly condescending indifference; they've already decided that Kimble's guilty and are setting him up to get the answer they want. Kosala did more than just act, though; as a former police officer, he helped write the scene to make the detectives' questioning feel authentic.
Ford, for his part, didn't look at the scripted questions before shooting, as he wanted his reactions to be believable and so didn't rehearse answers. Thanks to Ford's naturalistic performance, Kimble comes off as a man so blind with grief, he doesn't consider that he could be a suspect and so doesn’t realize he's walking into a trap until it's too late.