Alden, who plays young Han Solo, claims he had no idea how fraught relations between Lord and Miller and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan had become until they broke the news.
- Apr 25, 2018
AceShowbiz - Actor Alden Ehrenreich has no idea filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller had fallen out with movie bosses on the upcoming Han Solo blockbuster until after they were fired. The 28-year-old portrays a younger version of Harrison Ford's "Star Wars" character in the franchise spin-off, and admits he spent his first few months on set working closely with "The Lego Movie" directors.
However, movie officials at Lucasfilm didn't agree with their vision for "Solo: A Star Wars Story", and parted ways with Lord and Miller last summer (2017), in the middle of filming. Ron Howard was subsequently brought in to replace the duo and overhaul the project.
"They had a different (filmmaking) style than Ron in terms of the way we were working," Alden tells Esquire magazine, insisting that although their Han Solo script and vision was different, it wasn't bad.
"We tried a lot of different things, rethinking behind the scenes," he explains of their creative process. "That was yielding a different movie than the other factions wanted."
"I knew what I was doing, but in terms of what that adds up to, you're so in the dark as an actor. You don't know what it's shaping up to be, how they're editing it, so it's kind of impossible without having seen those things to know what the difference (of creative opinion) was, or exactly what created those differences."
Ehrenreich admits the news of the co-directors' dismissal wasn't just a shock to fans, as he also had no idea how fraught relations between Lord and Miller and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan had become behind the scenes.
Recalling the moment the duo broke the news to the cast, Alden shares, "They said, 'We were let go', and that's it. They had mentioned there were some disagreements before, but they didn't get into it."
"On a personal level, it felt emotional, for them to be going after we'd set out on that course together. Because I spent a lot of time with them, and we had a really good relationship - they also cast me."
Alden also shoots down rumours suggesting the cast and crew broke into applause at the news of Lord and Miller's exit. "That's bulls**t," he says. "For a crew to do that would mean they hated them (Lord and Miller), which was not by any stretch the case."
Meanwhile, the actor is heaping praise on the way Howard handled the delicate situation and managed to get the production back on track. "Ron had this ability to come in and deal with morale and get everybody enthusiastic about, A, what we'd already shot, because I think his feeling was that a lot of what we'd already done was really good, and, B, the direction for the next piece of it," he continues.
"He knew how to navigate a tricky situation, and almost from the first or second day everybody pretty quickly recharged and got excited again about the movie."
"Solo: A Star Wars Story", which is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France next month, won't be one-hit for Alden as Han Solo. He let it slip to Esquire that he is contracted for a total of three films in the "Star Wars" franchise.
