Harrison Ford has revealed that turning down a role in the 2005 film "Syriana" remains one of his biggest career regrets, as the part eventually went to George Clooney and earned him an Academy Award. Ford told The Irish Examiner he doubted the "truth of the material" at the time he was offered the role, but changes made to the script after he stepped away meant the finished film was more compelling than the version he had rejected.

Syriana, loosely based on former CIA officer Robert Baer's memoir "See No Evil", also starred Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright and William Hurt. Clooney's performance won him both an Oscar and a Golden Globe, though the production nearly proved disastrous for him personally: he suffered a serious spinal fluid leak after an on-set injury in Morocco, requiring a nine-hour surgery involving 15 blood injections into his spinal cord, and later said the ordeal left him fearing for his life.