Harrison Ford Says He Talks to Tom Cruise ‘About Flying’: ‘But He’s Far Deeper Into Physical Acting’

Harrison Ford said Tom Cruise takes action stunts “to a whole new level that’s pretty amazing”

Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise share a love for the skies.

In a new cover interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, Ford, 80, said that he and the Top Gun: Maverick star know each other due to their well-publicized interests in flying.

“I like Tom. We talk about flying,” Ford said as his and Cruise’s similarities were mentioned.

“But he’s far deeper into physical acting than I ever was,” the actor added, in reference to Cruise’s years-long passion for performing increasingly wild stunts himself.

“I don’t mind running, jumping, falling down, rolling around on the floor with sweaty guys,” the Indiana Jones actor told THR. “Tom takes it to a whole new level that’s pretty amazing.”

Inside Harrison Ford’s Passion for Flying – and Scariest Crashes

Ford, who earned his pilot’s license at age 54, told PEOPLE in 1998 that his favorite place to be was in the air, though he told THR Wednesday that his wife Calista Flockhart no longer flies with him in “vintage airplanes” after his near-fatal crash in 2015 while flying a World War II-era aircraft.

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Elsewhere in the interview, Ford said he believes acting “is the place I feel most useful” when asked whether he is surprised to still be working at age 80.

“It’s what I know the most about. I lost my chops as a carpenter. I haven’t ever played fiddle,” he told THR. “But I feel comfortable wrestling with how to make behavior out of words on a page and tell a story, and I’m still excited about the prospect of telling a story.”

Harrison Ford for The Hollywood Reporter. AUSTIN HARGRAVE FOR THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

“I think this is a service occupation — telling stories,” he added. “We need it. Whether it’s drawing on caves or religious tenets, we love telling stories.”

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Ford, who is dipping his toes into television with projects like Shrinking and 1923, is working as actively as ever with the fifth Indiana Jones film on the horizon.

“I like playing an old guy,” he told the outlet when asked how long he plans to keep acting. “If I wasn’t having a good time, I would stop doing it.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in theaters June 30.