Harrison Ford is primarily known for 2 film roles: Han Solo in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Nowadays, both roles are unimaginable without the actor. However, Indiana Jones was actually supposed to be played by someone else, who even got the role – but an iconic series intervened.
Who was supposed to play Indiana Jones? In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. In the adventure film, Steven Spielberg directed and George Lucas worked on the screenplay. The film turned into a major franchise, which has had 4 sequels to date, the last one even in 2023.
Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones in all parts of the series. However, someone else was actually supposed to play the iconic treasure hunter, and there were even screen tests for him: Tom Selleck. But he could not participate because a series got in the way.
Even in 2023, Ford still embodies the adventurer:
I didn’t decline it, I earned the role
What does Tom Selleck say about that? In 2020, Tom Selleck appeared on the Rachael Ray Show (via YouTube). There, Rachael Ray asks him if there was a role in his career that he lost out on. Selleck immediately thinks of one film. It was Raiders of the Lost Ark. He says the following about it:
God, all sorts of things that aren’t true are on Wikipedia and all that stuff. I didn’t decline it. I earned the role. I did a screen test. And Steven Spielberg and George Lucas said: “You got the role.”
A clip of the screen test can even be seen on YouTube today:
So why couldn’t he play the role? In the interview, the actor reveals that after he got the role, he informed Lucas and Spielberg about a pilot episode of a series he was set to film. The two didn’t think that would be a problem.
He was filming the series Magnum for CBS. The series aired from 1980 to 1988. The production work would have overlapped with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Contrary to expectations, the network told Selleck that he couldn’t do both.
He chose Magnum. However, he does not regret that decision, as he states in the interview: Well, that’s not the worst thing that ever happened.
Where do we know Tom Selleck from? Tom Selleck is primarily known as a television actor. Besides Magnum, he has appeared in almost 300 episodes of the series Blue Bloods: Crime Scene New York. Fans of the sitcom Friends may know him as Dr. Richard Burke. He was a friend of Monica in the series for 10 episodes. But not only Selleck could have had a different role. Harrison Ford could have also snatched an Oscar-winning role: Harrison Ford regrets having declined an important role – In the end, he could have received an Oscar for it
