You'd think getting cast in a Star Wars movie would be one of the most exciting things that could happen to an actor. It turns out that's only sort of true. While Alden Ehrenreich was certainly thrilled when he learned he'd been cast as Han Solo, the actor reveals during a roundtable discussion on the Solo: A Star Wars Story Blu-ray that his excitement was muted by the fact that he wasn't really able to tell anybody. While Ehrenreich says he did tell his family, due to the secrecy involved, he couldn't broadcast his success, resulting in him having a very quiet, and quite lonely, celebration, all by himself. According to Ehrenreich...
I called my family, I told them, but like, all my friends, I couldn't tell anybody really and it wasn't even going to be announced for three months. And so I didn't know what to do, but I felt I should do something, so, I like went to the beach, by myself, and walked around. And there was the pier there so I went to the pier and I was like 'I guess I'll ride a ride.' So I just rode a roller coaster by myself.
This is sort of heartbreaking. Here's a guy who has just won the biggest break of his career, he's going to take over one of the most iconic roles in cinema history, and he has to go ride roller coasters by himself because he can't tell anybody why he's celebrating. I mean, roller coasters are fun and you can totally have fun on them by yourself, but they are absolutely more fun with friends.
Such is the state of modern movie marketing, however. Studios have plans for how and when every new piece of information is released, and that includes major casting decisions. Because Lucasfilm wanted to wait to tell the world, the actor couldn't talk about it. It's one thing when you have to keep your mouth shut about spoilers, but in this case, the guy just wanted to revel in his success, and that wasn't going to happen for quite some time. The decision to reveal Alden Ehrenreich's casting was apparently already set for three months away, specifically, the official unveiling took place at Star Wars Celebration in 2016. Although, the actor's casting had been rumored for several weeks prior to that. One wonders if some of his family spilled the beans.
I hope that after the announcement was made he went out to a nice dinner or went to Disneyland and rode all the rollercoasters with his best friends. When you're Han Solo, you can probably get into Disneyland whenever you like. There's going to be a new Millennium Falcon ride there soon too.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available on Digital and Blu-ray.
