Grab your chance cubes, your blaster and get ready to go to a galaxy far, far away because there’s a new Star Wars film in cinemas.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is in theatres now and tells the story of how a young Han becomes the scruffiest smuggler in the Star Wars universe became a legend.
We were so excited for the film that when the opportunity came to chat to Alden Ehrenreich, who plays young Han, came to London we jumped at the chance.
Here’s what we talked about…
UNILAD Han Solo’s an iconic character, how did you feel slipping into his legendary Corellian leather jacket?
Alden: Ha nice! You know your stuff? It’s good, it’s great! You’ve just got to put the ‘iconicness’ out of your head so you can play this character and where he’s at in his life because that’s your only real job.
UNILAD: There was a lot made in the press about your performance and how it measured up to Harrison Ford’s original Solo did you feel any pressure…
Alden: [Cutting in] There’s certainly a comparison…
UNILAD: But it’s interesting that you’re not doing a Harrison impression, you’re bringiong your own thing to it.
Alden: Yeah absolutely, you early on I went back to the original films and absorbed parts of that original performance and the world of Star Wars in general.
But I then put that aside because the main thing when you’re doing a character is you want to make the person your playing feel like a real person, living through a specific set of circumstances.
So I was trying to find that balance between making [Han] feel real and give it a rhyming quality with who he ends up becoming, so you can buy into it.
UNILAD: I think you nail it, you know your Han isn’t the Han you meet in A New Hope…
Alden: No exactly he’s a dreamer and he’s not been hardened yet and I think it’s really to the credit of the screen writers, John and Larry, that they made him like that.
You know we know who he ends up being and that allowed them to create a pretty wide character arc for him and it makes the story more interesting.
UNILAD: So what do you think Han was up to in the three years he spent in the Imperial army?
Alden: I do, but I don’t want to talk about it too specifically because I’m sure there’s going to be books, or you may even see that again later down the line, so I want to keep that open for future writers.
UNILAD: What’s the main difference then between your Han Solo and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo?
Alden: I think the main difference is that he’s an idealist, who stars off as this dreamer and you watch him slowly shape into Harrison’s Han.
And I think that to get by in this criminal gangster world of Star Wars, you know like the cantina scene in A New Hope that was always a favourite, to get into that world you have to get tough.
UNILAD: Is that why Han shot first? Sorry, do you even think Han shot first?
Alden: Absolutely! You know the other Star Wars films tend to be morally clear, you know there’s light and dark and this movie’s a bit more morally ambiguous.
You know? Who’s a good guy who’s a bad guy? What does it mean to be a good guy and it’s a far more gangster and hostile world.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is in cinemas now!
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.