Harrison Ford: ‘Enders Game’ Author Orson Scott Card’s Gay Marriage Views Not an Issue

Actor says the author’s views have nothing to do with the movie

Harrison Ford believes that Orson Scott Card’s views on President Barack Obama and gay marriage aren’t relevant to the upcoming film version of his seminal sci-fi novel, “Ender’s Game.”

Card has generated a raft of negative publicity with his conservative positions on a range of social and political issues. In an opinion piece earlier this year, Card compared the president to  Adolf Hitler, Roman emperors and Iranian dictators. He also suggested that the president was going to tap gangs of “urban” youth in order to expand his power.

Also read: ‘Enders Game’ Author Orson Scott Card Compares Obama to Hitler: What Can Summit Do?

He has also been steadfastly opposed to same-sex marriage, although he has backed away from his earlier position that homosexuality should be criminalized.

Ford, one of the stars of “Ender’s Game,” told GQ Magazine that the movie has nothing to do with such hot-button topics.

“The issues that are coming up now are not part of the book, which is twenty-eight years old,” Ford said.  “So they don’t really concern me.”

The magazine says Ford paused.

“‘Concern me’ are really not the right words. I think it’s better to say that they are simply not issues; his point of view on some of these issues that are getting such attention now is not promoted by or part of the story that we’re telling.”

Ford has publicly come out in support of gay marriage in past interviews.

For its part, distributor Lionsgate has made a point of distancing itself from Card’s stance on the marriage issue. It was a topic that director Gavin Hood also weighed in on at the film’s premiere this week.

“I hold the opposite view,” Hood told Entertainment Weekly. “But I loved the book. … Would I prefer to be doing a movie without controversy? Yes, but I’m not in the least distressed that we are having this conversation. It is a very important conversation. It’s just odd that our film, which is all about tolerance, has to be used to counter of the author.”

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