“There have been five or six of those kinds of things that have shown up in the script, and it’s really quite remarkable,” the actor says of the Yellowstone spinoff storyline echoing his own life
Harrison Ford sees himself in his 1923 character Jacob Dutton — including some of the more .
In a PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at next month’s emmy magazine cover story (out May 4), the 80-year-old Yellowstone spinoff star shares how some elements of his personal history have been reflected in the script — specifically his near-fatal plane crash back in March 2015.
“When the scripts were coming, I was struck by how many major moments in my character’s life had a substantial and not coincidental shadow of the same things in my life,” Ford said, pointing to a scene in 1923 when his character is gravely injured. “I watched a rehearsal with a stand-in being brought into the kitchen, and Helen [Mirren] coming in, sweeping everything off the counter, taking command….”
He continued, “Even when I talk about it now, it emotionally relates to the airplane crash I had and what my wife went through.”
Ford, who is a pilot, has survived a few plane crashes — but the 2015 incident was particularly devastating for his family.
The Indiana Jones actor was flying a vintage aircraft when it suffered engine failure that forced Ford to make an emergency landing at a golf course near the Santa Monica Airport. At the time, son Ben Ford shared in a tweet that his father was “battered, but ok.”Though the crash is first to mind, Ford admitted there’s much more about Jacob Dutton’s life that parallels his own.
“There have been five of six of those kinds of things that have shown up in the script, and it’s really remarkable,” he added. “There’s something that feels bigger than myself, and it’s great to be able to serve these ideas.”
1923 is one of Yellowstone’s spinoffs on Paramount+. This series follows the Dutton family before the Yellowstone characters came into power of the Dutton ranch. Ford plays the family rancher, while Mirren plays his wife Cara Dutton.
Season 1 of 1923 is now streaming on Paramount+.