With ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ due to come out in just a few months (and Ron Howard busy getting that final cut ready over at Disney’s Burbank lot), there are still a lot of questions out there about what exactly happened with ‘Solo,’ especially in regards to the the dismissal of Phil Lord and Chris Miller last summer and Ron Howard coming in to direct and do reshoots. Fortunately for us all, one actor from the film (not a big name, just an actor), who has elected to remain anonymous, has come forth and spoken with the website Vulture about his on-set observations about what happened during the shooting of ‘Solo,’ a point of view that has shed some light on the situation, and for me, made me feel a little better about how it all turned out and a little more hopeful for the ‘Solo’ movie.
While speaking on the directors’s style, Vulture’s source claims Lord and Miller were all about doing 25-30 takes and always looking for something different, hoping to find the movie later in the editing room, which was frustrating to some actors and not as efficient or cost-effective as Lucasfilm was hoping. He is quoted as saying:
“Phil and Chris are good directors, but they weren’t prepared for Star Wars. After the 25th take, the actors are looking at each other like, ‘This is getting weird.’ [Lord and Miller] seemed a bit out of control. They definitely felt the pressure; with one of these movies, there are so many people on top of you all the time. The first assistant director was really experienced and had to step in to help them direct a lot of scenes.”
As opposed to Howard who, according to the source, came on and made the production into what seems like a well-oiled machine, knowing exactly what he needed and allowing the cast and crew to easily fall in line to get things done:
“When he came on, he took control and you could feel it. He got respect immediately. He’s really confident. A really easy guy to work with.”
The source also added that when it comes to the reshoots and the script, Howard is actually shooting the same scenes that Lord and Miller had been working on, that nothing new was written when Howard came on board:
“It’s exactly the same script. They’re filming exactly the same things. There’s nothing new. [Lord and Miller] used whole sets. But Ron is just using parts from those sets. I guess they’re not shooting wide angle. Maybe to save money.”
As for the rumors about Alden Ehrenreich’s acting being a problem, the source had the following to say:
“Trying to mimic Harrison Ford is really tough. Lucasfilm wanted something very specific: copying someone else. Alden’s not a bad actor — just not good enough.”
So he says they brought in an acting coach to help Lord and Miller, which he claims helped immensely, a fact which should help quell some of the fans fears about Alden in the movie:
“You could see his acting became more relaxed. He became more Harrison-like. The coach helped!”
At the end of the day, it does seem like “creative differences” truly is the best term to explain why Lord and Miller were fired from the film, as their style just did not seem to work on a film this high-pressure and big budget, especially when the whole thing was dependent on a specific character performance, which was not their strong suit. Thus it made sense to bring in Howard who could better work with Ehrenreich to bring out the Han Solo within so the man could carry the movie.
What are your thoughts about these revelations? Do they make you feel better about the ‘Solo’ movie coming out in May? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below!
