Although Al Pacino could have made a hefty sum for a part in Star Wars, it turns out the producers made him an offer he could refuse.
After writing about turning down the role of Han Solo in his 2024 memoir Sonny Boy, the Oscar winner reflected on why he was reluctant to pursue what turned out to be a massive onscreen franchise.
“I said, ‘I think I’m in the mood to make Harrison Ford a career,’” Pacino joked to People, recalling a visit with Francis Ford Coppola at his and George Lucas‘ San Francisco-based production company headquarters for American Zoetrope.
“They were in the late-’60s making this. They were real idealists coming into the ’70s with great films all over the globe,” he explained. “So, it was a wonderful place that I actually saw, I went to the building and everything before I did Godfather with them.”
Pacino continued, “So I loved their work, but I was doing a show on Broadway at the time, and they handed me this script, and I thought, I don’t understand. [I thought], I must be out of space myself. But I looked at this thing and I sent it to Charlie Loughton, my friend and mentor, actually. I said, ‘What do you make of this?’ He was pretty wise and he said, ‘I don’t get it, Al. I dunno. I don’t get it.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t either; what are we going to do? They offered me a fortune, but I don’t know. No, I can’t play something if I don’t speak the language.’”
After debuting as Han Solo in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, he returned for Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), before reprising the role more than 30 years later in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
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