Why Harrison Ford Replaced Alec Baldwin As Jack Ryan
Why Harrison Ford Replaced Alec Baldwin As Jack Ryan
Alec Baldwin only starred in one Jack Ryan film before he was replaced by Harrison Ford, a decision the actor blames on the studio Paramount Pictures.
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Harrison Ford replaced Alec Baldwin in the role of Jack Ryan for 1992’s Patriot Games because of a dispute between Baldwin and Paramount Pictures’ studio head David Kirkpatrick, although both men have different recollections of the split. Baldwin starred in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, the first of Tom Clancy’s geopolitical thrillers adapted for the big screen. After Patriot Games, Ford also starred in the next Jack Ryan film, 1994’s Clear and Present Danger.
Before Alec Baldwin won the role in The Hunt for Red October, Paramount approached Kevin Costner to play Jack Ryan but he turned it down to direct and star in Dances With Wolves. As Jack Ryan, Baldwin shared the screen with Sean Connery, who portrayed the Soviet defector and skipper of the Red October nuclear submarine, Captain Marko Ramius. Connery provided undeniable star power in the role but Baldwin, who was still developing into a leading man, held his own against the former James Bond. The Hunt for Red October grossed $200-milion worldwide, which guaranteed a sequel. Baldwin naturally assumed he would return as Jack Ryan for the next film, Patriot Games, and he was surprised to learn the studio recast him with Ford, who was a bigger movie star.
In 2011, Baldwin wrote a column for the Huffington Post about Charlie Sheen and Conan O’Brien but he opened by telling the tale about why he stopped playing Jack Ryan, admitting that he told “a half-truth… about scheduling conflicts” in the past. Baldwin explained:
The truth is the studio cut my throat… John McTiernan, who directed The Hunt For Red October… told me that he had been negotiating to do a film with a very famous movie star who had dropped out of his film days before so that he could go star in the sequels to The Hunt For Red October. John further told me that Paramount owed the actor a large sum of money for a greenlit film that fell apart prior to this, and pushing me aside would help to alleviate that debt and put someone with much greater strength at the box office than mine in the role.
While Baldwin never named the famous movie star Paramount owed money to, it’s logical to assume he means Harrison Ford, who had just completed the blockbuster Indiana Jones trilogy for the studio. Baldwin squarely blamed Paramount executive David Kirkpatrick for pushing him aside so Ford could play Jack Ryan, which is related to Alec’s aforementioned scheduling conflicts with his Broadway plans:
I had to decide if I would agree to an open-ended clause relating to dates for the first sequel and thus completely give up the chance to do one of the greatest dramas in the American theatre [A Streetcar Named Desire], or he would rescind my offer. They had the other guy all lined up, and they were looking for a way to gut me.
Interestingly, Kirkpatrick’s recollection of events is the opposite and he places the blame on Baldwin for being “nervous” about the film and for refusing to grant approval of Patriot Games’ script:
Fundamentally, the reason that Alec Baldwin and I ended our relationship over the character of the Jack Ryan franchise was an issue of trust. We did not trust one another to continue in the enterprise. The negotiations to continue as Jack Ryan had drawn out for almost a year and he was nervous over controls… Alec Baldwin withdrew from the project, Patriot Games, over an issue of script approval: I wanted him to approve a script and he refused. We amicably parted ways.
Both parties are steadfast in their version of the events and blame the other man for the end of Alec Baldwin’s tenure as Jack Ryan. Patriot Games, starring Ford, had a bigger opening weekend than The Hunt for Red October but ended up grossing $12-million less worldwide. However, Ford’s second Jack Ryan film, Clear and Present Danger, resulted in the highest-grossing of all five Jack Ryan movies with $207-million. Ford left the franchise afterward and three more actors, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, and John Krasinski would take over the Jack Ryan role in movies and TV over the next 25 years.
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