“I’m furious!” growled Harrison Ford. He was reacting to President Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget for 2021, which calls for massive budget cuts to environmental programs.
Released earlier this week, the Trump administration’s proposed budget would continue to slash funding at government agencies focused on science, the environment, and public lands in order to grow homeland security and to support infrastructure projects like the Mexico border wall. Trump’s anti-environmental agenda threatens the world’s climate, air, water, wildlife, and oceans—causing great concern for Ford, a passionate environmental advocate.
“This November, we must elect somebody that deserves the respect of the president of the United States,” Ford said at the Hollywood premiere of his latest film, The Call of the Wild, on Thursday evening. “The current leaders in our country are ludicrous and don’t believe in science. What they have replaced science with is ideology. Ideology doesn’t solve the problems that we have—science does solve the problem, and leads us to the solutions. Science is tested knowledge, and it’s upsetting that they don’t realize this.”
Nature and global conservation has long been important to Ford. Growing up, he said, he wanted to be a forest ranger, but got sidelined by that whole “movie thing.” The power of nature is central to The Call of the Wild: based on Jack London’s 1903 classic, the big screen adaptation is a thrilling frontier adventure tale honoring the beauty and majesty of wilderness. Ford plays a grieving father who befriends a St. Bernard/Shepherd mix dog set in the Canadian Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s.
“I hope people will watch the movie and understand that nature is there for them, and that nature sustains us all,” he said. “We are a part of nature, and not above it. Nature doesn’t need people—people need nature. We got to preserve the capacity of things that provides for us. Whether we are rich or poor, without what nature does for us, we can’t exist on this planet. Everything humans have needed to survive, and thrive, was provided by the natural world around us.”
As he continues to fight for global conservation, the 77-year-old star is also preparing to reprise his role as famed archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones. In two months, he starts filming the fifth, and likely final, installment of the Indiana Jones series under the direction of Steven Spielberg. The upcoming film is not a reboot, but a continuation of the saga.
“I can’t tell you any details, but I’m delighted to come back,” he said. “We made the efforts to make it fun and ambitious as the originals. It’s going to be good.”
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