Alden Ehrenreich comes to the defense of ousted Solo directors Lord & Miller

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

In a recent interview with Esquire, SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY actor Alden Ehrenreich decided to lay some rumors surrounding the troubled production of Han Solo's origin movie to rest. For their talk, the actor spoke openly about Tim Miller and Phil Lord's departure, who'd left the production after experiencing a series of disagreements with producer Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan. When news of the duo's split was announced, a lot of people lost their cool, as well as their faith in the project along with it. Shortly thereafter, news came that Ron Howard would be taking over directorial duties on the project. If this was Disney's idea for putting out the fire, it failed. Star Wars fans balked at the thought of Howard taking on the film, claiming that the APOLLO 13 director was "too safe" a choice to helm the smuggler's solo adventure.

With all of that drama in mind, we now get to hear from Ehrenreich himself, who's been along for journey to a galaxy far, far away throughout the prequel's sordid production cycle. “They had a different style than Ron in terms of the way we were working," the Solo star told Esquire. "From the first screen test on, we played around with it a lot. We tried a lot of different things, rethinking behind the scenes,” he said. “That was yielding a different movie than the other factions wanted. I knew what I was doing, but in terms of what that adds up to, you’re so in the dark as an actor. You don’t know what it’s shaping up to be, how they’re editing it, so it’s kind of impossible without having seen those things to know what the difference [of opinion] was, or exactly what created those differences.”

Word has it that Kennedy and select studio executives were not thrilled with the directors' improv approach to Solo, which reportedly ate up a lot of time and resources with regard to the project's strict filming schedule. Ehrenreich insists that he knew little about the details of the matter, particularly with conern to how bad things got behind-the-scenes. "The actors are at the kids’ table, unless you’re also a producer of the movie. So you’re really kept out of all the backroom dynamics of what was going on," he said.

Ehrenreich says that he was taken aback upon learning that Lord and Miller were let go from the picture. He told Esquire as much while explaining the following to the entertainment outlet: “They said, ‘We were let go,’ and that’s it," Ehrenreich confessed. "They had mentioned there were some disagreements before, but they didn’t get into it. On a personal level, it felt emotional, for them to be going after we’d set out on that course together. Because I spent a lot of time with them, and we had a really good relationship — they also cast me. But I think at that point, they were kind of on board with [the decision], too."

As their talk continued, Ehrenreich set the record straight that he was not the one who requested that Lord and Miller's be fired from the movie, nor did he require an acting coach to help him channel the character. "[Writer-director Maggie Kiley] was part of conversations that happened for a couple weeks at one point, but that was basically it.” Ehrenreich then added that Kiley was brought in to be of help to everyone on the set, not just him. He also clarified that the rumors of there being applause on the set of the film upon Lord and Miller's dismissal are completely false. “That’s bullshit,” Ehrenreich said. “For a crew to do that would mean they hated [Lord and Miller], which was not by any stretch the case.”

Before slipping away, Ehrenreich made sure to express his excitement for Howard's version of the film, in addition to the way the director took charge of the production from the moment he walked through the door. “Everybody’s hackles are raised a bit, and Ron had this ability to come in and deal with morale and get everybody enthusiastic about, A, what we’d already shot, because I think his feeling was that a lot of what we’d already done was really good, and, B, the direction for the next piece of it," he told Esquire. "He knew how to navigate a tricky situation, and almost from the first or second day everybody pretty quickly recharged and got excited again about the movie.”

Lastly, the Han Solo actor dropped an interesting bit of insider info, by saying that he's signed on for three films. “I don’t know if that’s officially, uh, public. But — yeah," Ehrenreich said.

What are your thoughts about all of this? Have the trailers got you excited for the release of Howard's version? Would you love to read a tell-all from Lord and Miller about the ordeal? Let us know in the comments section below.