Critics Choice Awards: Harrison Ford Gets Emotional Accepting Career Achievement Honor

Harrison Ford got emotional accepting the the Career Achievement Award at Sunday night’s Critics Choice Awards.

The actor was introduced by his Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director, James Mangold, who called Ford a “hypergiant.”

“The largest stars in the known universe are called variable hyper giants. Hyper giants are about 1700 times larger than our sun. A hyper giant is so big that 5 billion of our suns can be contained within it, and they’re so weighty that they pull other heavenly bodies toward them. Of course, Harrison Ford is a star. However, I submit tonight that he is a variable hypergiant. A star so big, he contains multitudes. A star so unique, he attracts other stars. A star so bright, he has warmed each of our lives in this room in this audience and likely on this planet.”

Mangold then went into Ford’s filmography, from American Graffiti to Blade Runner to Working Girl to Air Force One to The Fugitive and more.

“I spit out that incredible enviable list of films and performances without even mentioning Star Wars,” Mangold continued. “He was in five of them playing the charming Han Solo, who shaped all of our young lives as boys, at least, if not as women as well. Or the five Indiana Jones films in which he portrayed the beloved titular character, an archaeologist who pulls together the contradictory notions of a fussy, moralistic, snake-phobic bookworm and a dashing adventurer with old school integrity.”

Ford — who received a standing ovation as he took the stage, while the camera panned to his wife, Calista Flockhart, who was teary-eyed — thanked the crowd as they continued to applaud before noting, “Come on. I only have three minutes,” which earned some laughter. He kept his comments short but was visibly moved by the honor.

“First of all, I’m really happy to be here tonight to see what our business is turning into and all of the talented people who are getting opportunities that probably would not have existed in my early part of my career. I’m very happy about that,” he said. 

“I’m here because of a combination of luck and the work of wonderful directors, writers, filmmakers,” continued Ford, getting emotional. “I feel enormously lucky. I’m happy for this for this honor and I appreciate it very much.

“I wanna thank my lovely wife … who supports me when I need a lot of support — and I need a lot of support,” he added. “I’m grateful to all the fine actors, I see many of them here tonight that I worked with, and I’m deeply happy to have had the opportunities that I’ve had, and I’m grateful. Thank you. I won’t take any more of your time. Thank you.”

See a full list of Critics Choice Awards winners here.