Ford is finally getting his opportunity, thanks to his stellar turn in the Jackie Robinson biopic “42.” Ford plays Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey, who made the historical choice to allow Robinson in the minor leagues in 1947. Ironically, the only hitch in Ford landing the role was that writer-director Brian Helgeland didn’t want a star. “Brian was really looking for a character actor,” recalls Ford.
So the actor researched Rickey before sitting down to lunch with Helgeland, where he plead his case. “I was able to speak to him not only about the character, but my ambition to play him. It wasn’t audition. It was lunch. But I did pay.”
Once Ford landed the role, he reveled in obscuring his famous visage under makeup and prosthetics. “I thought it would serve the movie best if I weren’t dragging any of the baggage of previous incarnations into the movie,” he explains. “I wanted to make clear from the get-go that this was not about the actor, it was about the character.”