He’s captained the Millennium Falcon and saved the Ark of the Covenant from Nazis, but in Harrison Ford's new movie Extraordinary Measures, opening Friday, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones star plays a scientist who has better rapport with formulas written on a chalkboard than he does with other humans. "He exists in the academic world either because he doesn't have strong ambitions or the social skills that would allow him to interact outside the laboratory," Ford says. Extraordinary Measures is inspired by a true story, although Ford's character is an amalgam of researchers who helped discover an effective drug. “I've met some wonderful people who are academic scientists,” he says. “And they suffer from what my character suffers from — a lack of funding.  He's not able to prove his theory because he can't get the money. And when he gets the money he doesn't quite have the time, although he was right. My favorite line in the movie — and we proved that it's true — is that the coach of the football team at his university makes more money than his entire science budget. Universities will tell you that it's the football team that pleases the alumni."

Photo by Merie Wallace