Harrison Ford is Giving Young Han Solo Acting Lessons
LONDON — The beleaguered Han Solo movie production finally has some good news to report, thanks to the star who made Solo a household name 40 years ago. Our sources tell us Harrison Ford crash landed onto Pinewood Studios earlier this week after having been personally paged by famed screenwriter and good friend Lawrence Kasdan, the man often credited with giving Solo the rogue-ish charm we’ve come to love.
Trouble began early during production of the Star Wars spinoff as the filmmakers known mostly for The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street films struggled to find the right balance between a Star Wars movie with a humorous touch versus a full blown comedy. Lord and Miller quickly ran afoul of Kasdan, veering far off his script by encouraging castmembers to improv many scenes.
But it wasn’t until the actor playing young Solo cried foul that things really took a turn for the worse. Concerned with direction that included references to Ace Ventura, Curly of the Three Stooges, Carrot Top, LEGO Batman, and Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun films, Aaron Ehrenreich shared his concerns regarding the tone of the Han Solo film with Kasdan and the head of Lucasfilm herself, Kathleen Kennedy.
The trio gathered around and viewed a very rough cut of the film assembled with a combination of dailies and animatics. Our spy reports Kennedy peed herself 4 times and Kasdan fell out of his chair nearly a half dozen times as the footage they screened was pure comedy gold. Sadly, slapstick wasn’t exactly their vision for Han Solo, so drastic changes were required, but we’re told Kasdan said the rough cut was “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my 187 years on planet Vegas.”
The next day Kennedy met with Lord and Miller and issued an ultimatum: stick to Kasdan’s script or be removed from the film. After laughing hysterically for 5 minutes, the duo took turns pointing at Kennedy’s Star Wars t-shirt and laughing even more. Apparently their howls of derisive laughter could still be heard hours after security escorted them off the set. The firing was a hectic ordeal as Lord and Miller’s personal staff — an eclectic group of acrobats, magicians, dancing bears, motorcycle-riding capuchin monkeys, contortionists, mimes, and a clown car mini party bus that housed over 200 idiots in face paint — was also let go.
As soon as news of the high profile departure broke, Lucasfilm began to search for a veteran filmmaker to step in and pick up the pieces. Kennedy needed someone capable of handling action set pieces with humor sprinkled throughout. It didn’t take long to land on Ron Howard, a skilled director who’s directed for Lucasfilm before with Willow. The former TV actor-turned-director also advised Star Wars creator George Lucas during his filming of the prequel films. In a matter of days, the ink was signed and Howard made his way to London to assess the scope of the production and determine how much reshooting would be required.
Something happened to Alden Ehrenreich in those 48 hours though. Sources say he lost “it” – the charm and charisma he’s brought to every role in his young career. This “it” factor went missing, perhaps due to trauma or fears of reprisals from Lord and Miller for being somewhat responsible for their firing. Whatever the case may be, his acting chops were no longer what they once were.
Howard empathized given his own acting roots, but quickly brought on a series of acting coaches to help Ehrenreich. First up was Henry Winkler, better known as Arthur Fonzarelli or the Fonz, who gave the young actor a textbook lesson on hair styling, picking up chicks, giving the double thumbs up, and saying “AAAAAAAY!” with just the right oomph. After a day working together, however, Winkler told Howard he wasn’t getting anywhere and that Ehrenreich seemed to be “killing my vibe like a no good palooka head.”
A few days later, Willow star Val Kilmer was flown in to teach Ehrenreich his own extreme acting method. Kilmer instructed him in tantric yoga, dance battle, and peacocking. 3 hours into their first session, and Ehrenreich seemed to digress even more, becoming almost catatonic at points.
The studio was losing faith in their young star, when Kasdan proposed the most obvious solution: get the original Han Solo! Who else would be better equipped to instruct Ehrenreich in the ways of scruffy-looking nerfherders than the original? Ford jumped at the opportunity. He crash landed into Pinewood at a moment’s notice, scaring the bejeesus out of the production team, but getting a resounding applause from cast and crew once the dust had settled.
For the last week or so, Ehrenreich has shadowed Ford as the iconic actor just walked around being Han. “It was surreal, seeing Han doing Han with a younger version of Han right next to him,” said an extra who spoke to us anonymously.
The two Hans became fast friends as well, with Ford taking Ehrenreich up in his private aircraft, inviting him to crash land in a remote air field for fun. We’re glad to report that as of this writing, production is back to running smoothly — Howard is getting the performance he wants out of Ehrenreich, with Ford advising him in between takes and shots of tequila.
Go figure. It took Han Solo to save Han Solo. We can’t make this stuff up.
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-William “Willybobo” Bobo
