Karen Allen and the secret of Indy’s success

Posted by brandy

on May 16, 2008M at 2:53 pm

What makes the “Indiana Jones” franchise so enduring and special that people can hardly wait to see another movie almost two decades after the last film debuted?

It isn’t the iconic action sequences or cool special effects, says Karen Allen, who played Indy’s former flame, Marion Ravenwood, in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and is reprising the role in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

The key, she says, is the storytelling.

She says making sure the story for the fourth film was worthwhile was the core reason that star Harrison Ford, director Steven Spielberg and co-writer George Lucas took so long to start work on ”Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which opens Thursday in theaters.

“They want it to be a wonderful story, and I think it took a long time for the concept of this film to come and for them to work it out in such a way that they were really happy enough with it,” she said in a recent phone interview.

She said mixing colorful characters and fascinating artifacts, historical fact and imagination makes the potent brew that gives the movies their punch.

“I think the storytelling is fantastic, and that’s part of it. And then I think that they’ve also developed in Indiana Jones this really, really remarkable character that’s appealing to both men and women and it’s a very kind of real, fallible hero that people relate to and find funny and appealing and sexy,” she said.

“And it’s about archeology, which I think we all are a little fascinated by this idea of these incredible relics.”

For most fans of the series, Allen’s Marion Ravenwood is their favorite of Indy’s leading ladies. In a way, she said, her character sort of reflects the audience’s view of Indy: He’s an attractive, likable guy that you adore, but at the same time, you sometimes want to punch him in the face.

“I think that that’s exactly the kind of character that he needs to kind of match him, somebody who’ll really just dive in there and kind of wake him up. Even when I’m not punching him in the jaw, I do things like swing the mirror around and knock him for a loop and things like that,” she said with a laugh.

The actress, 56, couldn’t give much away about the plot of the movie, which has been kept largely under wraps. But she did reveal that all the hype surrounding the film has made her nervous. She just hopes that after nearly 20 years of waiting, fans really enjoy Indy’s latest adventure.

“I think it’ll be more exciting once I see the film and once we get the response of everybody. I mean, that’s the one thing that’s not so great about buzz and hype and all that, is the last thing that you want to do is then somehow there be some level of disappointment,” she said.

-BAM

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