Alden Ehrenreich (left) and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca
LOS ANGELES—When I first heard that Alden Ehrenreich bagged the plum young Han Solo role in the second “Star Wars” anthology film (following “Rogue One”), I did not worry about him stepping into the iconic part like some did.
Because when I saw Alden as a bumbling cowboy actor Hobie Doyle in “Hail, Caesar!,” the Coen brothers’ farcical spin of the Hollywood studio system’s golden age, I knew we have a young talented, charismatic actor in our midst. The short scene where Alden as Doyle, a rugged cowboy type suddenly thrust into a sophisticated drama, is reason enough to watch “Hail, Caesar!” if you have not seen it.
I am confident that the 28-year-old Los Angeles native will shine in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which centers on the adventures of a young Han Solo and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), including how they meet Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). Also in the cast of the movie by Ron Howard, who replaced directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, are Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany, Woody Harrelson and Jon Favreau.
Excerpts from our interview with Alden at The London West Hollywood Hotel:
How did you prepare to play this iconic role? When I first got the part, I watched all the movies 1 through 7 which was what was out at that time. Then I just spent some time trying to absorb everything that was useful in those movies, both in terms of
the character and the (“Star Wars”) world itself which has a lot of different crazy rules.
You have been in movies that are very character-driven and this is a sci-fi with all these special effects. How did you, as an actor, make an adjustment? You’re in charge of the character and because this is kind of almost a biopic of a fictional character, there’s a lot more attention on his inner life and character than you would get normally in these kinds of movies.
The biggest difference is in terms of production size. You’re doing a closeup but instead of just a regular closeup, you have to time it so that the 20 Stormtroopers walk behind you at the same moment.
Many aspiring actors dream about being discovered by Steven Spielberg. It actually happened to you at 14 years old. My friend and I used to make these very silly videos. A friend of his cousin’s asked us to make a video for her bat mitzvah. We made it.
So they played the video at the bat mitzvah. Steven Spielberg was there, saw it and miraculously thought that I should be in movies.
DreamWorks called my mom. They wanted me to come in and have a meeting. I had a meeting with Leslee Feldman, the head of casting at DreamWorks who became a real close friend and was very involved and very much my mentor in helping us navigate movie stuff for a long time and she still does.
So I had a meeting and then I was able to get an agent, based on Leslee vouching for me. I auditioned for a long time until I got a couple of TV things and then I did my first movie (“Tetro,” with Francis Ford Coppola) when I was 18 in Argentina.
The adventures of a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) are told in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Can we see that bat mitzvah video somewhere? I don’t know where it is. I haven’t seen it in 10 years.
This is one of the most coveted roles in recent years. What was going through your mind when you got the call to audition? I was like, well, I’ll go in and have fun. My approach to auditions is, I’ll go in, enjoy acting for the day and try not to get too wrapped up in the rest.
But once I read the scenes, it was such a great take they had. There were six auditions. I first auditioned in October 2015. I got cast in March 2016.
Talk about your first day on the set. I got to spend so much time with the crew, the directors and the other cast members beforehand that it was one of the easiest transitions. I’d been hanging out at Pinewood Studios for a long time.
It was the closest you could get to the whole Hollywood studio situation with these franchise movies because I signed up with a studio, I have a certain regimen so by the time I got there, we flowed right into it. There was this thing called preshooting. We preshot for three weeks.
What does Han Solo represent to you? How do you relate to the universe that George Lucas invented? One of the most spectacular things about getting involved in this project is understanding how incredible it is that this all came from George Lucas’ imagination.
I remember being a kid, seeing these movies and thinking, Han Solo is the coolest guy in the world. When the first movie came out, Harrison Ford got compared a lot to John Wayne.
Were you Han Solo or Luke Skywalker when you played as a kid? Both. I remember I had the Luke Skywalker lightsaber at that time. I also had the Han Solo stuff.
How comfortable are you in the humorous aspect of the Han character, his wisecracks and all that? The humor was my favorite thing from the very beginning. They wanted this movie to be as funny as a “Star Wars” movie can be. You do get so much humor from Han in the original movies. To me, that particular kind of humor was one of the most attractive things to me in terms of playing the part and Ron Howard really took to that.
What was it like when Ron Howard had to take over directing this movie? Ron had a very short period of time to get ready. He had about a week.
But what was it like shooting on the set with Ron? That was crazy. I did my screen test with Ron. I flew to England.
Also talk about acting with Joonas Suotamo, who plays Chewbacca. When Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) showed up, he was this 7’ 5” tall guy with black paint around his eyes and a big suit. Once I started working with him, it was one of the most rewarding work relationships I had on the movie.
Amid this amazing technical stuff, what Joonas is able to bring is a lot of heart and feeling.
Will we get to see why Han doesn’t really have ties aside from with Chewbacca and why he likes to distance himself from people? Yeah. One of the fun things in this movie is getting to watch that—this person slowly transforming, watching the experiences that shaped him into who he ends up being.
Talk about when George Lucas showed up on the set. I was in the middle of a scene so we were shooting and then he showed up. It was like, wow! He did a whole tour. He was in a blue dress shirt and he looks like what he looks like in pictures. He was very nice.
Playing with your character’s name, Solo, are you also one in your real life or are you sharing it with someone? Oh, yeah, like a lot of people are (laughs). No, what’s good about Han Solo is that he does his own thing. So I try to do my own thing (laughs).
How do you keep your life outside of filming so you gain experiences and different perspectives to help you portray various roles? I experienced going to college, spending time, actually understanding what you see in the world and getting some sense of yourself in that way.
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.