![]() ![]() His forte of late, however, would appear to be playing the out-and-out villain. Since then, London-born Molina has enjoyed a hugely successful film career, with an eclectic array of performances, from his tragic-comic portrayal of playwright Joe Orton’s vengeful lover Kenneth Halliwell in Prick Up Your Ears, to Mexican muralist Diego Riviera opposite Salma Hayek in the biopic Frida, to the stern yet small-minded father figure of suburban ’60s London in last year’s runaway British comedy-drama success An Education. “It was so basic and old-fashioned, and rather human, so that was wonderful – but I did have to move fast!”Īlmost three decades have passed since Molina played Indiana Jones’ ill-fated guide in the iconic opening sequence of Spielberg’s 1981 adventure epic Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is briefly spoofed in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. “He says, ‘We’re going to set fire to your hand, and you’ll have 10-15 seconds before it starts getting really warm, and as soon as you feel that, just dunk it in this other gel and we’ll put it out.’ ![]() “This gnarly old special effects guy comes up with all this flesh-coloured tape, tapes up my hand so it looks like a glove, and then he dips my hand in paraffin gel. “I thought they’d be using a green screen to insert the flame imagery, and that they’d be putting a green glove on my hand. “I did think – and hope – that was going to involve some CGI,” he confesses. “You’d have thought so,” smiles Molina, who now lives in Los Angeles.įor his character, the terrifying time-travelling mythological magician Maxim Horvarth, there are some eye-popping scenes where he instantly conjures up flames from his hands – the kind of visual trickery normally solved with the most up-to-date and hi-tech CGI (computer generated imagery) special effects. It appears to be the kind of multi-million dollar production where money was no object during its making. Now he’s back in another Disney spectacular – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – as the suave, sophisticated bad guy to rival Nicolas Cage’s hero. More recently he’s been the memorable villain Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and a hilariously shady and opportunist desert sheik in Disney’s Prince of Persia. As he prepares for his latest Disney role, he talks to Rob Driscoll about foreign accents, playing the baddie and on-set fireworksĮVER since he stole scenes from Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark, British actor Alfred Molina has become accustomed to the generous budgets of Hollywood blockbusters, which have regularly required him to add some colourful comic relief or be the nefarious nemesis. But here we are, four decades on, and the franchise is still kicking.Since his scene-stealing turn in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alfred Molina has been in demand in Hollywood. Its brown-face casting and colonial condescension less so. The film’s non-stop action is still thrilling. Indiana Jones is an old school, take-charge kind of guy, but he’s as plain as his surname, and as laconic and world-weary as those black and white heroes your dad liked to watch: Wayne and Cooper and Bogart. There is something reassuringly down to earth about such a man – in a strange way, he’s quite a paternal figure. He’s not impervious to danger, but he’ll shrug it off and do what has to be done with a grunt and a groan, then moan about it afterwards. Unlike the invincible machine-men Arnold Schwarzenegger would come to specialize in, Ford wasn’t afraid to be afraid (of snakes, for instance). Here was a pragmatic action hero whose dry understatement and wry humour saved the day. The indelible moment is surely the scene when Indy is faced with a terrifying master swordsman – pulls out his pistol and shoots him on the spot. ![]() He wasn’t a blue-eyed blond, and he wasn’t Marlon Brando, but Ford had a surly grace under pressure that caught the public imagination. Instead Raiders of the Lost Ark turned Harrison Ford into a legitimate box office champ at the ripe old age of 39. The role of Indiana Jones, the archaeologist-adventurer with the hat, the whip, and the slightly sarcastic smile had been earmarked for Tom Selleck – but the producers of Magnum PI wouldn’t give him leave of absence to film it. ![]()
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