Harrison Ford and Paul Bettany were both enjoying the company of their leading ladies when they turned out for the premiere of new thriller Firewall on Thursday. The American actor was hand-in-hand with girlfriend Calista Flockhart when he arrived for the screening, while his British co-star was sticking close by the side of wife Jennifer Connelly.
Both actresses had gone along to support their partners as they presented their new film. And the two screen sirens managed to make quite an impression on the press pack, with Calista looking radiant in a figure-hugging charcoal grey number and Jennifer using red satin to contrast her jet-black hair.
It seems likely that Paul in particular was relishing the chance to spend a night out with his Oscar-winning bride, as he confessed that working with Harrison proved rather painful. Speaking to reporters before the premiere, the 34-year-old actor admitted that filming his climactic final fight scene with the Indiana Jones star left him black and blue, despite the fact that Harrison, who is 30 years his senior, didn't have a mark on him.
"I was just trying not to get bruised," he explained. "I wouldn't want to tumble with Harrison Ford in real life. I threw that man through a window seven times and he landed on his head, got up, rebuilt the window with the crew and then got thrown through it again."
And it seems the UK star's fighting skills didn't make much of an impression on his older colleague. "I hit that man in the stomach and he said, 'Could you just land it a bit harder so I could feel it?'," revealed Paul. "So I landed it a bit harder and he wanted a bit more so he could react to it. Finally, I just wound one up and let loose on him and he said, 'That's it!'. It was the most humiliating day of my life."
Any other young actors who fancy their chances of dethroning the 64-year-old, who is something of an action flick veteran, should be warned he has plenty of fight left in him. "Sometimes when I'm preparing to roll down a flight of stairs and wrestle a younger man to the floor, I think 'what on Earth am I doing?'," Harrison confessed. "But it still feels good, so I'll only stop doing it when it really hurts."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
