Harrison Ford Explains Why Making The Devil's Own with Brad Pitt Was 'Complicated'

In a wide-ranging interview with Esquire for its Summer 2023 cover story, the 80-year-old actor detailed why the film was "complicated" to make, and revealed what caused him and Pitt to butt heads.

"Brad developed the script. Then they offered me the part," Ford said. "I saved my comments about the character and the construction of the thing -- I admired Brad. First of all, I admire Brad. I think he's a wonderful actor. He's a really decent guy."

"But we couldn't agree on a director until we came to Alan Pakula, who I had worked with before but Brad had not," he added. "Brad had this complicated character, and I wanted a complication on my side so that it wasn't just a good-and-evil battle. And that's when I came up with the bad-shooting thing."

After they struggled to agree on a director, Ford claimed he and Pitt ran into issues when it came to the screenplay.

"I worked with a writer -- but then all the sudden we're shooting and we didn't have a script that Brad and I agreed on," he told Esquire. "Each of us had different ideas about it. I understand why he wanted to stay with his point of view, and I wanted to stay with my point of view -- or I was imposing my point of view, and it's fair to say that that's what Brad felt. It was complicated."

Despite the allegedly difficult production, Ford had good things to say about the film. "I like the movie very much. Very much," he shared.

"The Devil's Own" follows a Tom O'Meara (Ford), an Irish-American policeman, who discovers his house guest, Frankie McGuire (Pitt), is an undercover I.R.A terrorist.

The film wasn't very well received by critics at the time, and holds a 35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. "The Devil's Own" -- which had a $90 million budget -- made $140 million worldwide.

Check out Ford's full Esquire profile, here.