Harrison Ford has made over 50 films in his unrivaled five-decade career, including the epic Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Grossing over $10 billion worldwide, Ford’s films have delighted, amused, and warmed hearts for a generation.

When it comes to Ford himself, he’s constantly taken pleasure in the trip.

” Movies continue to need me to be focused, to be attentive, to be innovative, to team up and play well with others,” he informs PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “It’s life in the trenches, moviemaking [and] I feel like I understand what to do with myself when I’m working. I feel comfortable.”

Says Ford, 80, who gets the fedora and whip for one last time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, out June 30, “I probably take pleasure in making motion pictures more than I ever did.”

One traditional memory harkens to when he was just beginning out and still working as a carpenter to make ends satisfy. “A friend of mine, Dean Tavoularis, who was the art director for Francis Ford Coppola, had actually created an entryway to Francis’s new offices at Goldwyn Studios,” Ford remembers.

Ford concurred but stated he might just operate at night lest the industry types puzzle him for a full-time carpenter. “I desired them to think about me as an actor, not as a carpenter,” says Ford, who had actually been in American Graffiti by that point.” [One] early morning, I was sweeping up and ending up my task when George [Lucas] and Richard Dreyfuss walked in … George had actually stated he wasn’t going to use anybody from American Graffiti, he was searching for brand-new faces. We talked a bit, which was probably the start of how I got to be in Star Wars.”

Ford adds an understatement: “It exercised.”

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He also states writer Tom Clancy believed he was “too old” to star as Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and remembers Bill Clinton calling him “the kick-ass president” after he played a commander-in-chief who battles a hijacker in the 1997 movie Air Force One.

Enjoyable truth? Ford snagged 3 fits from the Air Force One set and “was using them up until about five years back,” he shares..

See the video for more of Ford’s memories about the Star Wars movies, Witness, Indiana Jones and more.