“I had to be in the bed with him, you know. I’m dressed up to here, but I’m lying there and I’m thinking, ‘I’m in bed with Harrison Ford.’ I was so excited,” Helen Mirren shared of filming 1923

Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. Credit : Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Helen Mirren had to keep her cool while filming bedroom scenes with her 1923 costar Harrison Ford.

At The Wrap’s 2023 Awards Season Screening Series on Thursday, the 77-year-old actress recalled filming a scene in which their characters, Jacob and Cara Dutton, were together in bed.

“I had to be in the bed with him, you know. I’m dressed up to here,” she shared. “But I’m lying there and I’m thinking, ‘I’m in bed with Harrison Ford.’ I was so excited, I can’t tell you. I had to pretend to be cool. Don’t tell him. Promise me.”

The Oscar winner also praised Harrison, who she first worked with on the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast, for his kindness on set.

“He’s amazing. He really is,” Mirren shared. “The stature he’s held, as a major, humongous movie star, all that time, at the same time as somebody who doesn’t love the limelight. He has this interior quality to him.”

“He’s come to a place where he can be easy with other actors,” she added. “It’s immensely generous and incredibly professional. Not remotely spoiled movie star, at all. I genuinely love him. If I wasn’t married …”

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in 1923. James Minchin III/Paramount+

Harrison, 80, returned the compliment when appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in February. He told host Stephen Colbert that Mirren was a “big draw” for him to sign on to star in the Paramount Network show before reminiscing about his time starring opposite the actress in The Mosquito Coast after Colbert, 58, pulled out an on-set picture of the two.

“Sexy and still sexy,” the late-night host raved, as Ford, grinning, replied, “She’s still sexy,” to an eruption of cheers from the in-studio audience.

Colbert then asked Ford if he has “ever made out” with Mirren. “I ask because I have made out with Helen Mirren,” he said. “First time she came on here, first time I ever met her, she came on and plants a wet one on me. Really grabs my head. I was paralytic for about five minutes.”

As Ford expressed that Mirren “is out there,” Colbert replied, “She’s hot, she’s very hot,” which the Star Wars actor then agreed with.

“It’s been remarkable to watch her,” Ford told Colbert of Mirren’s work on 1923. “There’s a lot of physical action, and she just jumps right in and does stuff you don’t imagine Helen Mirren would do. Dame Helen Mirren.”

Following another generation of Duttons in the titular year, 1923 is set during “when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home,” according to a plot synopsis from Paramount+.

The spinoff follows 2021’s 1883, the Yellowstone prequel that starred real-life couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James and Margaret Dutton, and followed their story as they traveled to Montana.

Season 1 of 1923 is now streaming on Paramount+.