While in Los Angeles for the SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY World Premiere we walked the Red Carpet, saw the movie and even got to chat with some of the actors. Our first interview was with Alden Ehrenreich who is “Han Solo” in the movie.  We also were given the opportunity to chat with a few others and their interviews will be coming soon.

The coolest thing when Alden walked in is that he was a little in a daze because of something that happened in another interview right before ours. Here is how he recounts it, “I just have to sort of excuse myself because I was just doing an interview and Harrison Ford came up behind me and it was just wonderful.  I haven’t talked to him since I met with him for lunch before we shot.” Check out the interview where this happened HERE.

Alden shared that Harrison Ford said that he loved the movie and said that “I am great and that I’m going to make hundreds and hundreds of dollars.”

What do you think Alden did when he found out he got the part as Han Solo? He shared that after he found out, he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone but he did….. he told his family. He went to work and he didn’t know what to do. So, he decided to find a way to celebrate this. Alden went to the beach and he stood around, walked around and then found himself at the pier. Then he went on a roller coaster by himself in Santa Monica!

Alden then shared that something that was really important to him was to “make it feel like a real person going through something.” He said that he wanted to ensure that the moviegoers could feel a kind of continuity and that you could grow into that guy.”

To prepare for his role in SOLO, Alden started by watching all of the original movies early on to absorb as much of that as he could. He didn’t want to be thinking a lot about it when it came time to actually do the movie. He also shared that there are several little ‘quirks’ of Han Solo that he wants moviegoers to notice. Alden shares that his favorite Star Wars film is Empire Strikes Back because he loves Yoda a lot and that it is cool to have this kind of movie with so much real wisdom in it and a kind of deep philosophical background that’s put into terms that are so clear and communicable to so many people.

Alden shares that he saw his first Star Wars movie when he was 5 and he loved it so much that he had all the toys and all the action figures.  He shares that when he got to do his screen test on the Millennium Falcon, it was so familiar to me from just imagining that I was on it as a kid, it kind of put me at ease.

One of the best parts of SOLO according to Alden are the pilot scenes. He said “One is that you sit down and it’s really fun and you can’t you’re there and the other thing is about two months in and you realize you kind of know what the button does and how the chair sits like it’s yours.”

Of course there is a lot of pressure in filming a movie like SOLO. Alden shares that “the kind of pressure is the same as it is on any movie which is that you want people to really like it.” He states that you have to concentrate on what you have control over like the task at hand, the character you’re tasked with and your job. Just try to pour your energy into that.

As I am sure you notice, Han and Chewbacca have such fantastic camaraderie. We were wondering how he and Joonas Suotamo worked on that. Alden shares that they had a lot of time to do training together and they were just hanging out and doing stunt training and boxing and stuff like that together for a long time. He said that he and Joonas played Halo together even though Alden doesn’t play any video games. He also said that Joonas has a bed that has like another bed at the end (since he’s so tall) that’s horizontal.  Alden shares that Joonas is “the whole package, he’s seven feet tall with blue eyes.  He went to film school, he is hilarious.  He’s just perfect for it.  I don’t think everyone even realizes the amount that he has to do technically and also he has this big heart and exudes that.”

You’re going to love this movie! Check out my spoiler free movie review HERE. Alden shares that he is excited to hear fan’s responses to watching the movie and things that they know are familiar with. He loves the humor of it and the playfulness of the whole thing.

As you can guess, Alden’s family is really excited for him to be in this role. He states that his family doesn’t keep him grounded, that they’re too crazy about it. He tells them to stop talking about the movie and they make fun of him a lot.

After the world premiere, there was an after party but then his family threw him an after party after the party, lol. He said that it was just his friends and family and the kids that were there were making their own little Star Wars movie. He said they had drinks and sat outside and it was lovely!

Alden has never seen Game of Thrones but he is a huge fan of Emilia Clarke’s. He said that Emilia is incredibly talented and sweet as can be. Emilia brought in baked goods for the whole crew like every single Monday. The whole makeup trailer got fresh baked goods like every week. She is super sweet and warm. Alden states, “she was probably the person that I was most kind of on this journey together because we spent so much time together and our work was just so involved.

 

As you can imagine, there is a lot of pressure in playing such an iconic role. Alden shares that he “treated the whole experience like a great exercise in learning in a very high stakes very big situation how to navigate how much weight you give to the opinions and thoughts of other people and how much you listen to yourself. So it’s a great challenge in a sense that in a character way and a spiritual way to try to navigate that. That’s been really rewarding.

On another fun note, some of us had heard that Alden reads a book a day so we asked him about that rumor. Alden said that while he loves to read, he doesn’t read a book a day. He said that The Gilead Trilogy by Marilynne Robinson is as good as anything he’s ever read. There’s also a novel that called The Art of Fielding that he thinks is really great. He also likes Infinite Jest and said that East of Eden is really great.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY hits theaters May 25th

About SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in SOLO: A STAR WARSSTORY, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

LUCASFILM

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