Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford are near-impossible to interview

THERE are certain things one can count on when it comes to Harrison Ford — consistently gruff schtick during interviews being one.

THERE are certain things one can count on when it comes to Harrison Ford — consistently gruff schtick during interviews being one.

“I mean this in the nicest possible way, but that is none of your business,” he answers, for example, in response to an innocuous question from news.com.au about what he’s learned about his lifelong relationship with celebrity.

“[Fame] is an opportunity to help you find out who you really are, which is not necessarily what people think you are,” he says.

Would he care to elaborate?

“No.” He shakes his head. “I felt that was a pretty good answer.”

Ford and co-star Ryan Gosling are in Los Angeles to discuss the highly anticipated movie, Blade Runner 2049, in which Ford reprises his role from the groundbreaking 1982 original movie as blade runner Rick Deckard.

Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, seen here running away from an interviewer (jokes, it’s from Blade Runner 2049).

Naturally, the beloved movie inspires huge nostalgia in sci-fi fans around the world. Just don’t expect the same reaction from Ford.

“Well, I am not nostalgic. I am sympathetic. I am susceptible to emotion but I don’t sit around wishing I was back where I came from, I am happy to be here,” he says.

His tight-lipped technique seems to have rubbed off on the normally much chattier Gosling.

The Canadian actor was raised with his older sister by their single mother. He is himself now raising two daughters, Esmerelda, 3, and Amada, 18 months, with his girlfriend since 2011, Eva Mendes. His life has clearly been heavily influenced by the female psyche.

“I feel very lucky to be surrounded by women,” he acknowledges. “I think my life is much better as a result of that.”

But asked what he’s learned about women, he quickly retorts, “Not to answer questions like that.”

One of the movie’s prevalent themes is memory. Ford shares one of his earliest from childhood. “I have a very strong memory of my aunt coming into my room when I was about three years old, and telling me that I had a brother.”

He deadpans. “Next question?”

All together now: ‘No comment.’ Picture: Joel Ryan/Invision/AP

Flying would seem to be a safer topic. Ford has piloted many aircraft in his onscreen career — in Six Days Seven Nights, Air Force One, and of course, Star Wars for starters. Off-screen he famously flies his own planes frequently, and occasionally crashes them too. But his love for aviation is not enough to get him talking.

“I only fly to get to work on movies. I am trying to just talk about the movie and not about flying. Of course I love flying and I continue to fly and it’s an important part of life.”

He sighs.

“I love flying and I love the challenge of it and I love the blend of freedom and responsibility that it represents. It’s a complicated subject, but I have now talked about flying, OK?” he laughs. “Let it be noted.”

With so many relative newcomers in the film, including Ana de Armas (War Dogs), MacKenzie Davis (Breathe) and Dutch model-turned-actress Silvia Hoeks, how does Ford manage his inevitably intimidating presence? “I tell them to be useful,” he says.

Gosling says the only difficulty he encountered working with Harrison Ford were his punches.

There is considerable buzz about Cuban beauty de Armas, with whom Gosling has a love scene. Unfortunately, he is not inclined to discuss it.

“Respectfully, I would like to not talk about it because it’s a unique scene in the film that I would like for the audience to experience, to not be coloured by my experience.”

Gosling is happier to talk about his experience working with Ford. “He’s in a class of his own. We all should be so lucky if a little bit of that magic rubs off on us,” he enthuses.

There was only one non-magical moment he can recall, when Ford accidentally decked him in the face for real during a scene. “It’s his punches you have to look out for,” he laughs.

Wrapping the interview, in an attempt to find out the name of Ford’s dapper designer suit, he says, in his own inimitable style, “I don’t know, and if I did know I wouldn’t tell you.

“I’m not here to sell clothes.”

Blade Runner 2049 is in cinemas October 5.