Karen Allen on One Last Hurrah as Marion Ravenwood in ‘Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny’

Indiana Jones. Karen Allen always knew he'd come walking back through her door.

Since 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Allen has been only a sporadic presence in the subsequent sequels. But the glow of the freckled, big-eyed actor who so memorably played Marion Ravenwood has only grown stronger over time.

Indiana Jones may be one of the movies' most iconic characters, but he's always needed a good foil. It was Kate Capshaw and Ke Huy Quan in "Temple of Doom" and Sean Connery in "The Last Crusade." Yet none could top, Allen's Marion, a wisecracking, naturalistic beauty and swashbuckling heir to screwball legends like Katharine Hepburn and Irene Dunne.

Allen's place in the latest and last "Indiana Jones," the just-released "Dial of Destiny," has long been a mystery. Now that the movie is in theaters — spoiler alert — we can finally let the cat out of the bag. Allen returns. And while her role isn't large — tragedy has driven Marion and Indiana apart — it's extremely poignant in how she figures into Harrison Ford's swan song as Indiana Jones.

"Secrets," Allen chuckled in a recent interview, "are not my specialty."

Allen, 71, was a magnetic presence in some memorable 1970s and ‘80s films, including 1978’s "Animal House" (the performance that caught Steven Spielberg's eye), 1984's "Starman" and 1988's "Scrooged." But while she's steadily worked ever since, the era's male-dominated Hollywood often seemed to squander her talent. Allen has lived for decades in the Berkshires, where she opened a textiles and clothing boutique and has frequently performed at Tanglewood.

Allen also returned to Marion in 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." But as much as "Dial of Destiny" signifies the end of Ford's run as Indy, it's also Allen's goodbye to her most beloved character. This time, Indiana's sidekick went to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the "Fleabag" creator and star. Allen, praising Waller-Bridge as a strong woman, approves.

"If it wasn't going to be me," said Allen, "I'm glad it was her."

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AP: Did Spielberg or "Dial of Destiny" director James Mangold reach out to you about returning as Marion?

ALLEN: There was a period of time when Steven was going to direct the film. It was my understanding — although I never read any of those scripts — that it was being developed very much as a still-ongoing Marion-and-Indy story. When Steven decided to step down and James took over and brought in new writers, I knew it was going into a different direction. Having not even known what it was before, it was even more mysterious after they took it over.

So, I really didn’t know anything for a long period of time until they had a script. And I have to confess, I was a bit disappointed that she wasn’t more woven throughout the story and didn’t have more of an ongoing trajectory. However, the way in which she does come back into the story was very satisfying. I just thought, "OK, I’m just going to embrace this." I certainly would have been wildly disappointed had Marion just sort of vanished into the ether.

AP: Did you always think Marion and Indiana were destined for each other? You don't exactly get a sense of permanence between them in "Raiders."

ALLEN: It’s funny. When I first started working on it, I just decided that Indy was the love of her life. I just decided to make a deep commitment to that and to play through "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with the feeling they’re soulmates. When we end up married in "Crystal Skull," I wept when I read that script.

AP: "Indiana Jones" could be a boys world but you were such a spirited force of nature.

ALLEN: Well, Steven and George had this experience as young boys with these Saturday afternoon matinee serial films. They were just a little bit older than I am, so I kind of missed that. I don’t have a reference point for that. So, I don’t think that I necessarily understood the genre of film we were making.

I thought we were making "Casablanca." I really, truly did. So I sort of defined my character in that sort of genre — which I think weirdly enough works quite well for the film. I never imagined Marion as a damsel in distress in any sort of way. I was always pushing back against that, and in the end, Steven was supportive of that.

AP: Do you ever wish you had gotten the chance to star in more Hollywood films?

ALLEN: I make movies all the time, although I have tended in the last 10 or 15 years to focus more on indie films. In truth, the kinds of roles I’m really hungry to play, particularly for someone my age, they’re written more in the indie world. People kind of think, "Where have you been?" There were times I was raising my son, but I often do at least two films a year. They’re very satisfying, probably more satisfying than the sort of roles I would be offered. A lot of times I turned down things. There’s a lot of thankless roles for women in bigger budget films.

AP: What has Marion meant to you?

ALLEN: She’s sort of at the core of my growth as an actor and certainly my relationship to the world. As I move through the world, I’ve become very identified with that character. There was maybe a brief period of time where I found it annoying. But that passed and now it’s just this character that I love. I can’t imagine anything more satisfying to have had the chance in life to create a character that has some meaning for people.

AP: What was it like to shoot your scenes with Ford in "Dial of Destiny"?

ALLEN: It was fantastic. We shot it all in one day or maybe two days. To just imagine these two people that have been wrenched apart through grief and loss and then she’s coming back with this hope that they can move forward. When we played the scene, that was very, very affecting. We were both very affected by it and a little teary. And the crew was a little teary.

AP: How has it been keeping your role in the film secret?

ALLEN: It’s been excruciating. (Laughs) I never have to do anything like this again. People have come up to me and they’ve been so upset because they didn’t see my name on IMDb. People would be so mad I’d have to stand there and just be like, "What do I say? Do I say, ‘Yeah, isn’t that a drag?’ or ‘You never never know — wink, wink.’" I’ve had to say I just can’t answer any questions about "Indiana Jones" — which I feel like is sort of saying that I’m in the film. It’s a lose-lose situation. (Laughs)

AP: Does playing Marion one last time cap anything for you?

ALLEN: More so for Harrison than for me. He’s such a fully developed character and has done all five of these. With Marion, I’ve kind of come and gone. But she will always be a character that moves through life with me. I don’t know if I really have a sense of it being over. There always was a sense that one more would be done, even if it took 20 years. Now, they’ve been very clear that this is the last one. So, it is a letting go.

Defiant in diamonds, Kim Kardashian appeared in a Paris courtroom Tuesday to testify in the trial over the 2016 armed robbery that upended her life. The reality star and business mogul gave emotional, at times harrowing, testimony about the night masked men tied her up at gunpoint and stole more than $6 million in jewelry.

Here’s what she revealed — and what’s still to come.

A night that changed everything Kardashian said she was starting to doze off in bed in the early hours when she heard stomping on the stairs. She assumed it was her sister Kourtney returning from a night out. “Hello? Hello? Who is it?” she called.

Moments later, two masked men burst in. They dragged the concierge in handcuffs. They were dressed as police.

“I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack,” she said.

She grabbed her phone but froze — “I didn’t know what 911 was (in France).” She tried to call her sister and her bodyguard, but one man grabbed her hand to stop her. They threw her on the bed, bound her hands and held a gun to her back.

“I have babies,” she recalled telling the robbers. “I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”

Her robe fell open — she said she was naked underneath — as one man pulled her toward him. “I was certain that was the moment that he was going to rape me,” Kardashian said.

One attacker leaned in and told her, in English, she’d be OK if she stayed quiet. He taped her mouth shut and took her to the bathroom.

Kardashian later managed to free her hands by rubbing the tape against the bathroom sink. She hopped downstairs, ankles still bound, and found her friend and stylist, Simone Harouche. Fearing the men might return, the women climbed onto the balcony and hid in bushes. While lying there, Kardashian called her mother.

The men took a diamond ring she’d worn that night to a Givenchy show and rifled through her jewelry box. They took items including a watch her late father had given her when she graduated high school. “It wasn’t just jewelry. It was so many memories,” she said.

Investigators believe the attackers followed Kardashian’s digital breadcrumbs — images, timestamps, geotags — and exploited them with old-school criminal methods.

The robbery reshaped Kardashian’s sense of safety and freedom. “This experience really changed everything for us,” she said. “I started to get this phobia of going out.”

She often rents adjoining hotel rooms for protection and no longer stores jewelry at home, and now has up to six security guards at home.

"I can’t even sleep at night” otherwise, she said.

She also said she no longer makes social media posts in real time unless at a public event. Her Los Angeles home was robbed shortly after the Paris heist in what she believes was a copycat attack.

In a powerful courtroom moment, the chief judge read aloud a letter from one of the accused, who is too ill to testify. The letter said he had seen Kardashian’s tears on television and expressed regret. Kardashian was visibly moved.

“I’m obviously emotional,” she said in response.

“I do appreciate the letter, for sure,” she added. “I forgive you for what had taken place. But it doesn’t change the emotion, the trauma, and the way my life is forever changed.”

Kardashian, who is studying to become a lawyer, added that she regularly visits prisons. “I’ve always believed in second chances,” she said.

Kardashian made a fashion statement in court, wearing a $1.5 million necklace by Samer Halimeh New York. The jeweler's press release for the necklace came out even as she was on the witness stand, a reminder that visibility remains currency, even if the rules have grown more complicated.

The choice reflected defiance and the reclaiming of the image and luxury once used against her.

Kardashian said Paris had once been a sanctuary, a place where she would walk at 3 or 4 a.m., window shopping, sometimes stopping for hot chocolate. It “always felt really safe,” she said. “It was always a magical place.”

Twelve suspects were originally charged. One has died. One was excused due to illness. The French press dubbed the group “les papys braqueurs” — “the grandpa robbers” — but prosecutors say they were no harmless retirees.

The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association. If convicted, they could face life in prison.

Kardashian said she was grateful for the opportunity to “tell my truth” in the packed Paris courtroom.

“This is my closure,” she said. “This is me putting this, hopefully, to rest.”

The trial is expected to conclude May 23.

Karen Allen on One Last Hurrah as Marion Ravenwood in ‘Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny’