Harrison Ford might be about to turn 81, but he revealed that he has no plans to retire as he said goodbye to the Indiana Jones movie franchise.

However, he has acknowledged that it is time for him to move onto something else.

The actor has been in the business since the 1960s, but says he won’t give retirement a thought as he likes keeping busy.

Speaking to CNN, Ford said he doesn’t “do well” when he hasn’t got something in the works.

“I love to work … I love to feel useful. It’s my Jones, I want to be helpful,” he said.

The interview came ahead of the imminent release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the iconic franchise with Ford at the helm.

It’s no surprise Ford isn’t ready to retire, as he has been busy in recent years. In addition to Indiana Jones, he appeared in the comedy series Shrinking, which came out earlier this year, and 1923, the prequel to Yellowstone.

Ford said he wanted the final Indiana Jones film to be character-driven and actually confront age.

“I wanted us to confront the question of age straight on – not to, you know, to hide my age but to take advantage of it in the telling of the story,” he said, adding he believes strongly the movie has done that.

Interestingly, Ford was de-aged for a sequence in the upcoming Indiana Jones film, which he previously said was a little bit “spooky”.

“It’s a little spooky. I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works,” he told Empire last year.

“Doesn’t make me want to be young, though … I’m glad to have earned my age.”

Harrison Ford was 38 years old when he made Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.

Ready to ‘grow up’

Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, and two more Indiana Jones films came out in the 1980s. Then, in 2008, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released.

Ford was asked if making the final film would be “bittersweet”, but he insisted that it wasn’t.

Instead, it was time for him to “grow up”.

“No, no, it’s time for me to grow up. Six years ago, I thought maybe we ought to take a shot at making another one and I wanted it to be about age because I think that rounds out the story that we’ve told, and we brought it to the right place,” he told CNN.

“I mean, the last one ended in kind of a suspended animation. There was not a real strong feeling of the conclusion or the closure that I always hoped … and speaking to this issue of age, not making jokes about it, but making it a real thing.”

The fifth instalment also marks the end of Ford as an archaeology professor, who is frequently regarded as one of the best action heroes of all time.

However, Ford said he doesn’t play heroes.

“I don’t play heroes. I play a CIA man or a doctor or whatever it is, but you cannot play a hero. You have to play your audience. You have to bring your audience into that moment.”