THE FORD PHILOSOPHY; `I HAVE NEVER BEEN FASHIONABLE,' SAYS FAMILY-FOCUSED MOVIE STAR.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Harrison Ford questions himself incessantly. He can go along blissfully confident for, say, a good 15 or 20 seconds before the doubts begin to dog his mind. The misgivings are many and varied. He wonders about his ability as an actor. He's skeptical about the lasting quality of his work. Here, at this very moment, he's dubious about his ability to answer a reporter's question.

``Capacity is always an issue,'' the reticent Ford says grimly.

But for a man plagued by questions, Ford seems absolutely certain about at least one thing - his longevity. He has often talked about how he likes to make movies and then ``go away,'' his preferred method of skirting the machinery and self-absorption of Hollywood.

He has no plans, however, to take a permanent leave of absence from moviemaking. Sure, he may question his capacity. But he has no doubts about his durability.

``Because I have never been fashionable, I can never be unfashionable,'' Ford says matter-of-factly. ``It seems I'm lucky, too, in that even though we're in this youth-culture thing right now, there does seem to be enough support for a few of us geezers.''

Nobody is ready to label Ford, 57, a geezer, least of all Ford himself. (He sported a somber smile when making the above comment.) Ford continues to sport a gold stud in one ear and wears his graying hair in an upswept, spiked style. The earring, Ford's ``favorite'' fashion accessory, was added two years ago on a whim (``I just always wanted a pierced ear,'' he says) and wasn't an act borne out of a late midlife crisis.

That he wears the earring in his new romantic drama, ``Random Hearts,'' may be part of an ongoing campaign to unsettle his audience's perceptions.

``I don't want people to have a particular expectation of me,'' Ford says. ``I think you can see that in the movies I choose. For me, there's always been a couple of parameters: I don't want to do something too close to what I've done lately, and I want to do something with ambition. And I like to skip genres, too. It keeps people guessing.''

Says Sydney Pollack, who directed Ford in ``Random Hearts'' and his earlier remake of ``Sabrina'': ``Harrison doesn't get his due as an actor, often because the roles he chooses don't tap into the range he's capable of showing. After all, there are only so many ways you can run from something in a movie.''

Indeed, many of Ford's biggest roles have him taking flight, whether it's from the law (``The Fugitive''), society (``The Mosquito Coast'') or evil (``Witness''). (And let's not forget that tenacious bounty hunter who kept following him throughout the ``Star Wars'' series.) In ``Random Hearts,'' he plays a man running from his own perceived failures, both as a husband and as a police officer.

``It's a pretty grown-up concept for a movie,'' Ford says.

He'll keep that mature mood going with his next film, ``What Lies Beneath,'' a supernatural thriller he's currently shooting with Michelle Pfeiffer. But despite this raft of character work, Ford says he isn't ready to turn in his running shoes.

Nor does he necessarily agree with Pollack in assessing his film work. Ford, Hollywood's most famous former carpenter, approaches each movie looking to submit himself to the role's particular logic. It all comes down to detail and problem solving. And, to Ford, ``Random Hearts'' was no more challenge than ``Air Force One'' in that regard.

Ford will likely reprise his role as Tom Clancy action hero (sans earring) Jack Ryan sometime in the near future (probably next year) and hopes to do another ``Indiana Jones'' movie, despite the fact the series' producer, George Lucas, won't be free from his ``Star Wars'' commitments until 2004. That would put Ford's Indy at 62 and more likely to wear a fedora to cover a bald spot than to make a fashion statement.

But if Ford has any reservations about a sexagenarian Jones, he's keeping them - like so many other things - to himself.

``I'm capable of faking all the things I've faked before,'' Ford said. ``I mean, I don't want to come to the point where it becomes ludicrous, but I think we're far from that at this time. There are a lot of examples of people near my age doing that sort of thing. Sean (Connery) is one who leaps to mind.''

Kristin Scott Thomas, who remembers thrilling to Ford's heroics in ``Star Wars'' when she was a 16-year-old girl, says, that as far as she's concerned, Ford could play Indiana Jones as an 80-year-old and still bring something to the part.

``People who are magical on screen sort of stay that way forever,'' says Scott Thomas, who also played Robert Redford's love interest last year in ``The Horse Whisperer.'' ``Think about Cary Grant. When he was ancient, he was still, oooooh, so fabulous.''

Grant was 62 when he walked away from film, bored by the paucity of challenging roles coming his way. That's not a problem at the moment for Ford. He makes only one movie a year and tries to work after his two children, Georgia, 9, and Malcolm, 12, have returned to school. His 16-year marriage to screenwriter Melissa Mathison rates as such a priority that Ford will turn down movies he feels would take away too much time from home. Thus, Ford reportedly passed when friend Steven Spielberg asked him to go off to Europe and make ``Saving Private Ryan.''

Through the years, Ford has famously turned down leads in ``JFK,'' ``The Hunt for Red October,'' ``Ghost,'' ``The Mirror Has Two Faces,'' and (wisely) ``I Love Trouble.'' Limiting his schedule has not limited his options, however. Oprah Winfrey made that presumption once, producing the following exchange:

Oprah: Do you accept films that don't have a lot of action in them? I mean, when they come, do you look for as much action as you can find?

Ford: Did you ever see me beat Sabrina?

That's where Ford finds himself today - throwing fewer punches, dishing out the occasional punch line, but mostly steering himself toward the sort of decent, distant and cautious characters that have marked his career. He has always believed himself to be an actor, not an icon, an ``assistant storyteller,'' if you will.

``It's like being a waiter or a gas station attendant, only I'm waiting on 6 million people a week - if I'm lucky,'' Ford says, again flashing that sad smile.

And if the attractive roles stop coming his way, if he can't find one script that interests him each year, Ford has an easy solution. He'll take longer breaks between projects. He'll spend more time flying his airplanes, watching his two youngest children navigate through their high school years and enjoying his grandson. (Ford has two older sons from his first marriage.)

``I don't have a grand plan for my career, never have,'' Ford says. ``I just make it up as I go along. But, in the end, it's work. It's not my life. It's just what I do for a living. There are a lot more important things to worry about.''

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3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) A reliable Ford

He's still gearing up for one movie a year, with `Random Hearts' as 1999's model

(2) A cop (Harrison Ford) and a congresswoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) discover that their spouses were having an affair in ``Random Hearts.''

(3) ``People who are magical on screen sort of stay that way forever,'' Kristin Scott Thomas, right, says of her co-star, Harrison Ford.