Before Their Recent Award Moment, Helen Mirren Reflected on Harrison Ford’s Near-Fatal Plane Crash History

Between 2022 and 2025, fans of Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone franchise got to watch Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren co-star in 1923 together. Clearly, the two actors bonded over their time co-starring in that series since Ford recently presented Mirren with a major award.

Months before that awards show moment, Mirren revealed that part of his 1923 performance was inspired by Ford finding himself "dying and covered in blood" following one of his plane crashes. That near-fatal accident was only one of several times that Ford has been involved in plane crashes or incidents that many people seem to have forgotten about.

Helen Mirren Reflected on Harrison Ford’s ‘Dying and Covered in Blood’ Moment That Inspired His ‘1923’ Performance

On January 9th, 2026, USA Today published an article that detailed what happened when Harrison Ford presented Helen Mirren with the Cecil B. DeMille Award. That article reveals that while speaking about his former 1923 co-star, Ford praised Mirren as a person and artist in a really fun way. "The word that comes to mind is not 'dame,' it's 'badass.' Helen Mirren can play a badass because she is one. A badass is raw, authentic, formidable, tough and fearless. That pretty much describes Helen the woman and Helen the artist."

Learning about the remarkable thing that Ford just said about Mirren makes it fascinating to recall something she once revealed about him. Months ago, in February 2025, Mirren spoke to The Wall Street Journal for a profile about Ford. While speaking to the outlet, Mirren explained that while working on 1923 together, Ford told her that part of his performance from that show was inspired by the often-forgotten fact that he has been involved in plane crashes. As Mirren explained, Ford could relate to his character because he had also experienced what it was like to almost die.

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

The Often-Forgotten History of Harrison Ford’s Plane Crashes and Incidents

Between roles in movies like the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Blade Runner franchises, Harrison Ford has left such a huge mark on pop culture history that he is often a subject of discussion. However, these days, very few people talk about the actor's history of being involved in plane crashes and incidents. Despite that, a February 2024 Simply Flying article details the fact that Ford has been involved in several plane crashes, a helicopter crash, and other aviation incidents.

While all of those incidents are remarkable, the most severe appears to have been what took place in 2015 based on what the actor has revealed about that crash. An October 2015 Entertainment Tonight article quoted Ford from Jimmy Kimmel Live! discussing how serious his 2015 crash was. While talking to Kimmel, Ford revealed that the aftermath of the crash was so severe that he has no memories from several days.

"I remember the engine stopping, I remember that part very well," he said. "I remember telling the tower what I was going to do, and I remember their suggestion. Their suggestion was that I take the normal route to land, and I knew that I wasn't going to do that. So I said 'no.' And that's the last thing I remember until five days afterwards. I'm told by the doctors that the amount of general anesthetic that I received…gave me retrograde amnesia."