Harrison Ford talks 'Star Wars,' 'Blade Runner,' and Indy on Reddit

Legendary actor Harrison Ford answered questions from fans over the weekend on Reddit about his role as Han Solo in "Star Wars," his thoughts on the "Blade Runner" sequel, and injuries he sustained playing archeologist Indiana Jones. Harrison also talked up his latest project on climate change called "Years of Living Dangerously" and revealed how he chooses his roles.

Below are the highlights from his Ask Me Anything interview.

On the "Blade Runner" sequel:
"I'm quite curious and excited about seeing a new script for 'Blade Runner' if in fact the opportunity would exist to do another. If it's a good script I would be very anxious to work with Ridley Scott again, he's a very talented and passionate filmmaker. And I think it would be very interesting to revisit the character."

On whether his "Blade Runner" character Rick Deckard was or wasn't a replicant:
"I think that it's a wonderful storytelling mechanism for that question to be left unanswered. I love that people are still curious about it."

On being approached to be in the original "Star Wars":
"I was approached with the offer of a job, which at that point, was all I wanted to hear. I had helped George Lucas audition other actors for the principle parts, and with no expectation or indication that I might be considered for the part of Han, I was quite surprised when I was offered the part. My principle job at the time was carpentry. I had been under contract as an actor at Columbia and Universal. I had a house at the time I wanted to remodel, a bit of the wreck of a house. I'd invest money in tools but wouldn't have money for materials, so I realized this was another way of putting food on the table. And allowing me to pick and choose from the acting jobs that were being offered at the time."

On whether Han Solo's famous line "I know" was an ad lib:
"It's not really an ad lib, it was a suggestion, and movie making's a real collaborative process at its best. You don't ad lib it, you suggest it and then you try something in rehearsal and then you agree. So it was my suggestion, because I thought it was more of a character line than what was written, but the director and Carrie and I all thought it was a good idea at the time so we did it."

On who shot first -- Han Solo or Greedo:
"I don't know and I don't care."

On who would win in a celebrity-boxing match: Han Solo or Indiana Jones:
"The promoter would win."

On whether he would win in a fight against Mark Hamill:
"Me, of course."

On getting injured while filming Indiana Jones:
"On the first Indiana Jones movie, I tore an ACL in one of my knees, can't remember which knee, the scene in which I was fighting the big German mechanic on an airplane called a flying wing, I was run over by the landing gear and injured my knee, but I can't remember which one it was. Lots of bumps and injuries along the way."

On funny stories while filming Indiana Jones:
"We were shooting in Tunisia, and the script had a scene in which I fight a swordsman, an expert swordsman, it was meant to be the ultimate duel between sword and whip. I was suffering from dysentery, really, found it inconvenient to be out of my trailer for more than 10 minutes at a time. We'd done a brief rehearsal of the scene the night before we were meant to shoot it, and both Steve (Spielberg) and I realized it would take two or three days to shoot this. It was the last thing we were meant to shoot in Tunisia before we left to shoot in England. The scene before this in the film included a whip fight against five bad guys that were trying to kidnap Marian, so I thought it was a bit redundant. I was puzzling how to get out of this three days of shooting, so when I got to set I proposed to Steven that we just shoot the son a bitch and Steve said 'I was thinking that as well.' So he drew his sword, the poor guy was a wonderful British stuntman who had practiced his sword skills for months in order to do this job, and was quite surprised by the idea that we would dispatch him in five minutes. But he flourished his sword, I pulled out my gun and shot him, and then we went back to England."

On whether he hates snakes like his character Indiana Jones:
"I actually like snakes! When I was young, I was a Boy Scout nature camp counselor, and one of our projects was collecting snakes and creating an environment for them, so I'm quite familiar with snakes and think they're fantastic creatures."

On if he preferred playing Han Solo or Indiana Jones:
"I think Indiana Jones was a lot of fun to do because of the places we went to and the adventures and the action. But Han Solo was also a huge part of my life."

On how he chooses projects:
"It's very hard to say what the motivation is these days. Most of the time I love the material, have the time free, and look for something different to do. I look for people I enjoy working with, I look for material that I think will make a film that people will go to. It's my job."

On his latest project about climate change, "Years of Living Dangerously":
"'Years of Living Dangerously' is a wonderful opportunity to reach a lot of people with the story and importance of climate change in our lives, in recent history there's no bigger threat to the quality of human life than what is taking place right now in respect of climate change. So the chance to bring attention to this issue, this problem, and the potential solutions and mitigations of the problem, was a really important opportunity for me. I've been committed to try to be useful in the protection of nature for a long time through my association through Conservation International, and I thought the people involved in this project were thoughtful and creative and I was very happy to have the chance to work with them."

On why he decided to be in "Expendables 3":
"I was on my way to Indonesia to do 'Years of Living Dangerously,' and halfway around the world. The location for 'Expendables' was right on the way, and they asked me for a relatively short period of time, and it seemed like fun. I hadn't seen the films but I looked one of them and I thought it was kind of funny, so I thought why not?"

On saving people with his helicopter:
"I was one of a group of people working with Wyoming on search and rescue. And they were always team efforts, and it was always embarrassing to be singled out and given credit for a rescue or any help I was able to give because it was always a team effort."

On the movie quote he gets asked to say the most:
"Get off my plane."

On the worst movie set he's been on:
"The set for 'Blade Runner' was maybe the hardest set I've ever worked on because I think we worked 50 nights in a row, and it was always raining."

On advice for aspiring actors:
"All I can say is that it's rewarding and challenging, and the competition is so strong that the chances of being successful in that area are statistically daunting. But most people give up, or are unable to sustain themselves until they have the opportunity to become successful which means to get work, so the only thing I can say is try to figure out how not to give up. If it's a true ambition and you really have a passion for storytelling, try and figure out how to hang in there."

On being in so many iconic films:
"Someone said thank you for being a part of so many childhood films: Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. It's a privilege to be able to be involved with people as talented as the people I've had the luck to work with, and it's just been a great experience for me, and I'm glad that so many of the films I've had the luck to do were films that could be enjoyed by families together."