Harrison Ford Says He Continues to Act at 82 Because of the ‘Essential Human Contact’ It Provides

Harrison Ford has been a fixture in Hollywood since his breakthrough work in the ’70s and — as he shared in a new interview — it still offers him something worthwhile.

Speaking with Vanity Fair on Oct. 10 about his work in the hit comedy series Shrinking, which has now entered its second season on Apple TV+, the Golden Globe winner revealed what exactly keeps him acting at 82 years old.

“Oh man, I get out of it essential human contact,” the Star Wars alum said, when asked what he takes away from acting nowadays. “I get to imagine with people that have great skill and experience…. It’s fun to work with these people.”

Shrinking‘s second season arrived with its first two episodes on Apple TV+ on Oct. 16, as Ford stars in the series again alongside Jason Segel and Jessica Williams. Detailing the comedy work that’s inspired him as an actor, Ford told Vanity Fair he didn’t “think much about it as an actor” but rather “as a person.”

“I always enjoyed humor. I loved jokes. I loved the construction of jokes,” Ford said. “My father was a joke teller. The wordsmithing and the ideas that lay behind a joke have always interested me. When I was thinking about becoming an actor, I was ambitious for both kinds of work — serious drama and comedy. I found myself doing both and not really distinguishing much between them.”

“I think I think with the same actor’s head about a joke as I do about a serious or emotional scene,” he added.

Acting wasn’t Ford’s first gig. Earlier this month, the Shrinking star — who previously shared that he secured his Star Wars‘ Han Solo audition because of some well-timed carpentry work — opened up to Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live about how he also worked as a chef for a period of time.

The gig lasted until “they found out about me and fired me,” Ford joked, adding that his first job was indeed acting as a cook at a hospital.

“I don’t know what I told them but they gave me a knife and a bunch of carrots, and I cut this part of my finger off within minutes,” he said, showing Kimmel his left index finger. “But the sew-your-finger-back-on department was right down the hall, and right after that was where they fire you for lying about [cooking skills].”

Ford, who admitted to Kimmel that he never worked as a restaurant cook, apparently also had a stint as a cook on a yacht in Chicago, for people “far beyond my means at the time.”

“In Chicago, I was working on a yacht that was owned by the youngest bank president in Chicago at the time,” he said. “He had a yacht and a boutonnière. . . and he was a nice guy, but he didn’t know much about cooking. But he was heir to the Swift meatpacking factory, so all I had to do was buy really expensive beef.”

“Yup, anybody can do that,” he joked of grilling beef.

The first two episodes of Shrinking season 2 are now steaming on Apple TV+.