In Jim Ford’s amusing new short film “Small World,” two American tourists (played by Ford and Hannah Sloat) in a far away foreign land realize they are not just both from New England, but, as the conversation in a bar intensifies, Central Massachusetts, near Worcester. Shrewsbury, to be precise, and even from the same street in Shrewsbury.
Alas, the conversation doesn’t end well.
But Ford, who grew up in West Boylston and has had a successful career as an actor and a stuntman, evidently fared better in his travels in the United States. He has visited every state, as he relates in his book “My Take On All Fifty States: An Unexpected Quest to See ‘Em All,” published earlier this month.
One of the rules for qualifying as a state visited, Ford decided, was that he have at least one conversation with someone in the state. Airports didn’t count. All the 50-plus conversations went well.
The book is part memoir reflecting on Ford’s more than 200 combined credits as actor/stuntman in films, TV shows and commercials and working with actors such as Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Gerard Butler, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Adam Sandler and Kevin James.
However, “I didn’t want to say ‘Oh, I worked on this movie …'” What had struck Ford early in his career was that his work, unexpectedly, was taking him to a lot of the 50 states.
“I thought I’d be working on a sound stage in Burbank, but I was filming in a myriad of interesting states and locations,” Ford said. “Deserts in New Mexico, jungles in Puerto Rico, bayous of New Orleans. This is where I was working and I didn’t see that coming. I was just constantly traveling. Some years I’d work in 14 or 15 states.”
It got to the point where Ford realized there were only a handful of states he hadn’t visited to make it to the total of 50. He decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I was just, ‘I have to. I have to check the remaining states.'”
A call one time to his now wife, Danielle, went along the lines of “I’m going to Little Rock for the weekend … Come on, I’ve only got four or five states to go.” When his parents called on another occasion and asked what he was doing, Ford replied, “I’m driving in West Virginia.”
Some of the remaining states were the ones that people don’t usually go to unless they have to, he said, like Arkansas and West Virginia. But after a trip to Alabama, he only had two states left, Alaska and Hawaii.
Alaska proved to be his favorite state. “Less traveled. More exciting.” He went on hikes and almost got charged by a moose. Juneau is the only U.S. state capital not connected by roads to the rest of the state as it is surrounded by mountains and water, Ford noted. “It feels like another world.”
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park made for an interesting hike when he was in Hawaii. “There were active steam vents and sinkholes.” One of the volcanoes erupted a few days after his visit, and part of the park had to be closed down.
“I had some awesome adventures, but it wasn’t my favorite state,” Ford said of Hawaii. “It’s a pain in the … to get to. We were traveling just forever to get there. And it’s expensive. Seventy-five dollars for breakfast, and then not a fancy breakfast.”
Speaking of food, his best culinary experience was crawfish jambalaya in Shreveport, Louisiana. “We don’t eat too exciting in West Boylston,” Ford said.
A film shoot in Puerto Rico proved interesting as it took Ford to jungles and shanty towns that tourists wouldn’t usually see.
