Karen Allen On Working With Harrison Ford Again In ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’

Actress Karen Allen is opening up on what it was like to work with Harrison Ford again in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

The two first shared the screen together in 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Although she only had a very brief appearance in 2023's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," Allen talked about how her relationship with the "Star Wars" actor has "evolved" over the years.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Allen said that their relationship has "evolved in a wonderful, wonderful way" and admitted that they did not know each other at all when they were filming "Raiders of the Lost Ark." She said that, at the time, their approaches to acting had been very different, as she was used to performing in theater. She was used to rehearsing and talking through scenes with other actors.

However, Ford came from a different background. He preferred to do the work on his own and then show up ready to rehearse the scene. Allen recalled that Ford "had no interest in running lines or doing things like that." Although the two had different approaches to acting, Allen did say, "We worked together wonderfully; I just had to make an adjustment so I felt like I knew what I was doing on my own."

She also said that she learned a lot from Ford, such as how to work with a camera. "The films I had done up until that point, mostly I was trying to forget the camera was there, but in a film like this you're really partnering with the camera a lot of the time," she explained. "You need to know where it is, you need to be able to work with it. I was learning those skills by the seat of my pants."

She said that she learned a lot just by watching the 80-year-old Ford on "Raiders of the Lost Ark." However, when they met up again for "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," their relationship was a lot different. "It was like coming together with an old friend and reconnecting these characters," she said. "That was just a wonderful, easy, breezy experience. This time [in Dial of Destiny], it was short but sweet. It's very brief. But it was lovely to come in at the end and to see these characters come together and be back together.

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" marks the fifth and final time that Harrison Ford will be playing Indiana Jones. Karen Allen admitted that she was hoping that Marion would play a larger role in Indy's final adventure, saying, "I was down for whatever, in whatever way they wanted to bring her back into the story. I was 100% there."

She noted that there was "a shifting and changing of things" when Steven Spielberg was going to direct the film. However, he passed over the reins to James Mangold. Although she hadn't read a script yet, Allen said that she knew "how Marion would be a part of the story."

The 71-year-old actress then went on to explain, "When it shifted over to James Mangold directing and suddenly he brought in new writers, the Butterworth brothers [Jez and John-Henry], then I really had no idea whether I would be in the film or not. It was a fresh start. I think it was when they felt their script was finally finished that it came to me, and they had written this role at the end of the film for Marion to come back."

"I can't say that there wasn't initial disappointment in the sense that I wasn't more a part of the adventure of this story," she confessed. "But simultaneously, there was a sense of gratitude that Marion was going to come back into the story, and that if this is indeed the last film of this series, that it ended on a very upbeat note for her character. Because she's such a vibrant, wonderful character, and it would've broken my heart to see her just vanish into the ether."

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is now playing in theaters.