I was invited by Disney on an all-expense paid trip to cover the #HanSoloEvent. All opinions are my own. 
Alden Ehrenreich plays “Han Solo” in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY and in my opinion, he makes an excellent Han Solo. “For young Han Solo, times are tough under Imperial rule. He makes his way as a reckless street thief, working for a notorious gang on Corellia, which is headed up by an ill-tempered crime boss. After an arduous stint as an Imperial mudtrooper, Han calls it quits and finds that he is very comfortable reinventing himself and traveling in the company of scoundrels around the galaxy.” When I was in LA I had the chance to sit down with Alden and talk about his experience making the movie.
How did you decide how much Harrison Ford you would use for your character versus making it your own?
Alden: Well before I answer that, I just have to sort of excuse myself, because I’m in sort of a daze because I was just doing an interview and he came up behind me and it was just wonderful. And I haven’t talked to him since I met with him for lunch before we shot.
Did he tell you his reaction to the movie?
Alden: He loved it, he thought it was awesome, he thought it worked like gangbusters. He thought I was really great and he said I’m going to make hundreds and hundreds of dollars. {Watch the moment Alden is talking about in the clip below}
Back to the first question…
Alden: Something that was really important to me was to make it feel like a real person, that you’re watching a real person going through something. And you also want to feel a kind of continuity that you could grow into that guy. I basically started by watching all the original movies, very early on, and kind of trying to just absorb as much as of that as I could, so that when it came time to actually do it, I wouldn’t be thinking a lot about it.
What was that one Han Solo quirk that you made sure you nailed and how?
Alden: Well there are several things, I don’t want to name them because then it’s like you’re watching for them and I want people to just watch the story. But I think one of the qualities about him that I really love, you know, there’s a moment in A New Hope where they’re pinned in a corner and they don’t know what to do and he just starts yelling at the top of his lungs and running at them. And I feel like that’s a great quintessential thing of the essence of this guy.
What was it like doing the pilot scenes?
Alden: That was really one of the best parts of the whole shoot. And it was I think actually flying the ship, it’s so cool. There’s kind of two things that are really cool. One is that you sit down and it’s really fun and you can’t believe you’re there and it’s really surreal. And that’s exciting and that’s what everybody comes and visits the set experiences. And the other thing is about two months in and you’re in there every day and you realize you kind of know what button does what and you know how the yoke feels and you know how the chair sits and you kind of you feel like it’s yours. Yeah yes.
Is there a lot of pressure taking on this iconic role?
Alden: Yeah there’s certainly the more pressure with something like this, because it’s so enormous, of course. But the kind of pressure is the same as it is on any movie, which is you want people to really like it. And the only recourse you have in the face of that is to concentrate on what you have control over. You concentrate on your task at hand, the character you’re tasked with, and your job that you have to concentrate on. You just try to pour your energy into that.
After you got the part, what was your first thought and what did you do?
Alden: I think it’s kind of like- your mind is blown. You’re just in a daze such as I am right now. And you just kind of can’t believe it, it’s so thrilling and so exciting. And after I found out, I’m not allowed to tell anybody. So, you know, I did, but…
Who’d you tell?
Alden: My family. And you know, yeah. All my friends were at work, and I just kind of didn’t know what to do. So I was like, ‘well I should find a way to celebrate this’. So I went to the beach and I stood around and I walked around and then I found myself at the pier and then I was like, well I guess I’m here, I should go on a ride, so I just rode a roller coaster by myself. [He laughs]
Han and Chewy have such a great camaraderie, did you and Joonas work on that?
Alden: Oh yeah thanks. I mean I think the main thing with that is that he and I had a lot of time to do training together. So the way we meet involves a lot of, there’s a lot of work that goes into that, so we spent a lot of time, we were kind of the only cast members who were there in advance. And so we ended up just hanging out and doing stunt training and boxing and stuff like that together for a long time, which was really great. And played some video games together at the hotel. He’s 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. And 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 and you really feel it. And it was some of my favorite work in the film was doing those scenes.
What will fans like the most?
Alden: Well I think so much of the fun of it, you know, it’s almost like a biopic of a fictional character. So it’s like you get to watch these things that you know and are familiar with and love come into place and how they all add up to making him the Han that we see later on. You know, and that means so much to people and it’s so fun, and I just think also like the humor of it and the playfulness of the whole thing is so great.
How does your family keep you grounded?
Alden: They don’t [he says laughing] they’re too excited, they’re too crazy about it. I’m like guys, ‘you’ve got to stop talking about the movie’. And they’re ‘oh my god, yeah yeah’. But then they make fun of me a lot yeah.
What was it like working with Emilia Clarke who plays “Qi’ra”?
Alden: So I haven’t seen Game of Thrones, I know I know, yeah but I’m definitely a fan of hers. She’s really wonderful, incredibly talented, and sweet as could be. I mean, she brought in baked goods for the whole crew like every single Monday, the whole makeup trailer got fresh baked goods every week. And yeah it was so nice. And she’s super sweet and warm. And she was probably the person that I was most kind of on this journey with, in a sense. Because we spent so much time together and our work just was so involved. That we ended up spending a lot of time together and it was a blast, it was really sweet and I’m very grateful to have that partnership with her.
What is your favorite Star Wars film?
Alden: I think Empire Strikes Back. I love Yoda a lot. And I just think it’s really cool to have a movie, this kind of movie, with so much real wisdom in it and this kind of deep philosophical background that’s put into terms that are so clear and communicable to so many people. And it’s just cool.
When did you see your first Star Wars movie and how did you like it?
Alden: I loved it, I was five, I think and I saw it on VHS, and I had all the toys and all the action figures and played pretend. In fact, when I got to do my 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. Walking through the hallway and the everything and all this stuff. It’s really-really exciting.
Alden was very nice in person and it was great getting to hear about his experience in this movie. Here is our group photo from after the interview. 
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY opens in theaters May 25th!
Watch the trailer…
Like STAR WARS on Facebook
Follow STAR WARS on Twitter
Follow STAR WARS on Instagram
Visit the official SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY website
“Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy.
