Watch Kurt Russell’s rare audition for ‘Star Wars’
If you’re old enough, cast your mind back to the 1970s, and if you were born far later, simply use your imagination, unless that’s been eroded away by all that time on your Playstation 360’s and Nintendo watches. The year is 1977, and George Lucas’ Star Wars is about to hit the big screen; you may just think it’s a throwaway B-movie, but don’t be fooled, this movie will change the cinematic landscape.
Boom! Lucas drops a seismic charge of financial celluloid gold dust onto the industry, with studios frantically trying to copy the success of the movie, which cost just $11million to make, yet made $775m at the box office. At one point, the most successful movie of all time, adjusted for inflation, Lucas’ Star Wars made a whopping $1.814billion and remains iconic to this very day thanks to some ingenious world-building.
Yet, aside from the memorable planets of Tatooine, Hoth and Endor, Star Wars was also well-loved for its characters, from the farm-hand-turned-intergalactic-hero Luke Skywalker to the bold Princess Leia, who disturbingly earned the physical love of a cosmic rogue and her own brother, unbeknownst to her. But, arguably, it was Han Solo who was the most important character in the movie, giving general audiences a familiar action star to latch onto in an otherwise nerdy world of deadly light torches and bucket-headed dictators.
Played by Harrison Ford in the movie, who would later be catapulted to international fame thanks to his role in the sci-fi series, Solo became a key figurehead of the franchise, yet his casting wasn’t entirely straightforward. Rising to the top of the pile thanks to having worked with Lucas for 1973’s American Graffiti, Ford had to originally contend with the likes of fellow actors Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and even Bill Murray.
Each of these aforementioned names, while being known for their acting prowess, simply wouldn’t have suited the sleek, suave and camp demeanour of Solo, but one other hopeful would have, the great American action hero Kurt Russell.
Much like Ford, Russell had emerged from relative obscurity in the 1970s, having only really appeared in TV series and the odd movie, which had headed straight for a debut on the small screen. Clearly a talented star, Russell’s audition tape for Solo was impressive and can even be seen to this day in the video below, but he wasn’t quite ready for a starring role, even if he would organically take to the silver screen mere years later.
Take a look at Russell in his audition tape for Star Wars below, appearing as Han Solo just four years before he would make the action hero Snake Plissken his own.
