Harrison Ford's low salary

Feb 21, 2010, 9:30 GMT

Harrison Ford is willing to work for an "allowance" when times are hard in the film industry.

The Hollywood star - whose worldwide box office sales have surpassed $6 billion over his four decade career - said it's difficult to get a movie off the ground nowadays and he's had to accept that sometimes the fee will need to be dropped.

Speaking of his fee for new movie 'Extraordinary Measures', Harrison said: "This is my job. I don't have another job. This is my craft that I have spent my whole life working at. I want to get paid to do it otherwise I'm not being responsible and I'm not valuing what I do for a living.

"Obviously - I lowered my salary - I was willing to work for something more approaching an allowance than a pay cheque because I understood the realities of the economies of this kind of film."

The 67-year-old star admitted it's taken him a while to understand how the film industry has changed but is still surprised at how much slower the filmmaking process has become.

He said: "It is impossible. It used to be that somebody would send me a script, I'd call them on the phone and I'd say, 'I love it', and they'd say, 'Great, let's make it.' Two weeks later we'd be in pre-production.

"It used to be a whole different process. We'd proceed on a handshake and work out a deal very quickly. It just ain't that way anymore. Money's tight. The money is not as healthy as it once was."