Harrison Ford on His New Glenmorangie Campaign and Climbing a Mountain in a Custom Palace Kilt

Let the record show that Harrison Ford was into his kilt.

The last time I interviewed Ford, I asked him about his shorts. This time around, we’re focusing on a kilt. Specifically, a custom kilt designed for him by the streetwear brand Palace, to wear in a new global campaign for Glenmorangie single malt Scotch whisky.

Once Upon a Time in Scotland, which dropped today, consists of a series of episodes directed by Joel Edgerton that tell the story of Ford traveling to Tairn, in the Scottish Highlands, where the Glenmorangie distillery is housed. He lounges around a castle, learns how Glenmorangie is made, and learns how to pronounce it (that would be Glen-MOR-uhn-jee). (The accompanying music features the best bagpiping happening within proximity to Ford since 1993’s The Fugitive.)

In one of the vignettes, he’s presented with the custom Palace kilt to wear. “That’ll never happen,” onscreen Harrison Ford declares, before ultimately acquiescing.

Actual Harrison Ford felt differently, he tells me. “The kilt, I thought, looked quite good on me. It hits a nice point above the knee and I was quite comfortable in it,” he says in a phone call. “My job was, however, was not just to wear it but to act about it—I pretended to be apprehensive, when in fact I felt completely secure.”

Palace, the brand that designed the kilt, famously has its roots in skate culture. Has Ford ever skated? “I have attempted to skateboard,” he says. “It was my last attempt at trying. There are two things I’ve never been able to do: stand up on a surfboard and stand up on a skateboard.”

The Glenmorangie campaign also featured Justin O’Shea as creative director, Lachlan Bailey as photographer, and Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Christine Centenera as stylist. It marked both Ford’s first trip to the Scottish Highlands, and his first time working with Edgerton, two experiences which he enjoyed.

“We had an open plan for the thing,” Ford says, “and much of it actually found its way onto the screen. But it was very loose and I was really surprised that our sponsors allowed us so much liberty and freedom and were so unworried by our humor and general behavior. It was really fun.”

“We did 12 little vignettes, which altogether tell the story of the whisky and the jerk’s”—that would be Ford—“visit to the distillery,” Ford explains. “We did take the piss out of ourselves on a pretty regular basis, which is fun.” Aside from the movie star, everyone else appearing in the ads were locals and Glenmorangie distillery employees.

The first episode of the campaign opens with Ford meditating, during which he gets a vision of the Scottish castle he must visit. Is he, in fact, a regular meditator? “That’s acting. I’m not very good at sitting still—or walking,” he deadpans.

While he may not be a meditator, he is a longtime whisky enthusiast.

“I had spent my entire adult life drinking it without knowing a hell of a lot about it. But the whisky maker, Dr. Bill, took me under his wing and gave me a rather valuable instruction in the crafts and the standards and the different varieties of single malt scotch whisky, the history of the distillery, the history of the product,” he says. “I enjoyed learning about it and I enjoyed drinking it.”

Did Harrison Ford learn anything about himself during his exercise of playing Harrison Ford? “He’s a bit of an asshole,” Ford says, laughing. “It’s not who I am. But it’s some of the things I do out of a humorous intent.”