Harrison Ford may be Hollywood royalty, but don’t expect him to gush over trophies. Standing on the Televerse red carpet in Los Angeles, the 83-year-old legend reflected on his first-ever Emmy nomination — and promptly brushed it off.

“It’s nice,” he admitted, nodding to the recognition for his role in Shrinking. But then Ford cut through the glitz: “My real pleasure is in the work.”

That’s Ford in a nutshell. Whether it was cracking a whip as Indiana Jones or piloting the Millennium Falcon, the thrill has never been about applause. It’s about what he calls “the mystery of it.”

“What’s going to happen, who’s going to do what — it’s fascinating to be alive,” he explained. “The stuff we do is so demanding, you’re really scared not to do anything. That’s what keeps me going.”

In other words, for Ford, it’s not the award shows or the afterparties. It’s the risk, the tension, the unknown. That constant uncertainty has fueled him for more than fifty years and still makes him show up on set with the hunger of a young actor.

Even co-star Jessica Williams chimed in on the red carpet, saying she loved the same thing — not knowing what’s next. “It’s very exciting,” she echoed. Ford just grinned, a man who clearly still thrives on the chaos of Hollywood.

It hasn’t always been this way. Early in his career, a Columbia Pictures exec sneered that Ford had “no future in the business” and even told him to cut his hair like Elvis Presley and change his name. The actor refused. “He thought that ‘Harrison Ford’ was too pretentious,” Ford recalled with a laugh. Now, decades later, it’s one of the most famous names in the world.

What’s striking is that Ford still talks like the hungry carpenter-turned-actor who just wants to be part of the action. He doesn’t care about the Emmy as much as the people behind it. “I like having writers that you trust,” he said, crediting Shrinking’s team for stretching his range.

And while he’s not the all-night party type anymore — skipping the cast wrap party that ran until 3 a.m. — Ford flashed that mischievous smile when asked if he could still hang. “It’s happened before,” he joked, giving a glimpse of the rogue we’ve all loved on screen.

Through it all, Ford insists fame was never the goal. Even now, he doesn’t sound like a man chasing one last accolade. He sounds like a man who still wakes up fascinated by the work itself, by the risk of not knowing what tomorrow brings.

For Harrison Ford, the secret isn’t in the spotlight — it’s in the shadows of the unknown. And maybe that’s why he’s still here, still driven, still defying every Hollywood rule written about him.