Harrison Ford Shares College Depression Struggles

Harrison Ford, the 83-year-old actor known for iconic roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, has shared a candid account of his struggles with clinical depression during his college years, crediting an accidental enrollment in a drama class with transforming his life and steering him toward a career in acting.

In a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast, recorded at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Ford described his time at Ripon College in Wisconsin in the early 1960s as a period of profound isolation. He lived in a single room and rarely left it, sustaining himself primarily by ordering pizza. "I would get up out of my single bed, go to a phone, order a pizza, go back and lie down in bed until the pizza came," Ford said. "I would eat the pizza, throw the wrappers in the corner, go back to sleep." Even attempts to attend classes often failed; he recounted touching the door of the classroom building only to turn around and walk away.

Ford characterized his condition as more severe than typical depression. "I was more than depressed," he said. "I think I was ill. I was socially ill, psychologically not well." This social withdrawal left him without a...