1923 star Helen Mirren thinks “magical” change happened in Harrison Ford after plane crash

1923 Season 2 is almost here, and star Helen Mirren has revealed what she believes is the biggest change in Harrison Ford over the years.

1923 is soon returning to fill the Yellowstone-shaped gap in TV, wrapping up the prequel series of the pre-Great Depression era of Duttons.

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren head up the 1923 cast as Clara and Jacob Dutton, a strong-willed couple who take on the burden of keeping the Dutton Ranch under the family’s possession.

The two legends had previously worked together in the 1986 drama movie The Mosquito Coast. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mirren reflected on the biggest change in Ford over the years, and how one exchange during 1923 Season 1 revealed it all.

Helen Mirren shared intimate 1923 moment with Harrison Ford

“Something rather magical has happened to Harrison, especially with his history of, you know, being the dude, the bloke, the fabulous action guy, the funny guy, the cool guy,” Mirren said.

“Now there’s this open road to his inner feelings, which he is absolutely unafraid of expressing. It’s just a true, quick, instinctive emotional reaction to things, without sentimentality.”

Mirren then went on to theorize that this change took place after Ford’s 2015 plane crash. On March 5, Ford was flying his WWII plane and had to make an emergency landing at a golf course in California after the engine lost power.

Ford had to be escorted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, suffering from a broken pelvis, ankle, and other injuries.

Mirren described an exchange she had with the actor while working on the first season of the Yellowstone spinoff, in which Ford’s character Jacob had been taken home after almost getting killed in a gunfight.

“He’s been carried into the kitchen, dying and covered in blood, and later Harrison did say to me, ‘That was how I was after the accident,'” she said.

“I think, maybe, going through that experience just gave him a very different understanding of what it is to be a sentient human being.”

1923 Season 2 premieres on Paramount+ on February 23.

For more, check out all the other Taylor Sheridan shows worth watching. You can also see what other TV shows are returning this month, and find out what’s going on with the upcoming spinoff 1944.