While interviewing on “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” Lester Holt shared stories from his little-known cameo in “The Fugitive,” the 1993 Harrison Ford action-thriller in which he appeared as a local news journalist grilling Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble, who’s wanted for murder.
Recalling how he ad-libbed a line in his brief appearance, Holt said on the daytime talk show Monday that he was “totally freaked out” Ford’s angry, in-character response.
“The director knew someone at my TV station, and he basically said, ‘I want real news people, and I want them to react to what they know and ask the questions,’” Holt explained. (At the time, Holt was working for a local news outlet in Chicago, where the movie was filming.)
The journalist said that when his moment came on set, he was completely thrown off guard by Ford’s reply, particularly since the actor wasn’t supposed to give him one.
“We did this scene outside the Hilton Hotel in Chicago. Harrison Ford, you know, ‘The Fugitive’ — he’s just kind of exonerated, they’re leading him out of the hotel, and I remember at one point he comes out and they wanted us to just ad-lib, and I said, ‘Why did you kill your wife?’ And he stops and he turns to me and he goes, ‘I didn’t kill my wife.’ I went, ‘ You weren’t supposed to talk to me, sir.’ I was totally freaked out by it.”
“The Fugitive,” which centered on a man who is wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, was written by David Twohy and directed by Andrew Davis.
Elsewhere in the interview clip, Holt recounted other instances he’s cameoed as himself in projects like “30 Rock,” among others.
Watch the “Kelly Clarkson Show” segment in the video above.
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