“They didn’t want an actor”: When James Caan put himself on a pedestal above Harrison Ford
Some performers want to be known as actors, and others are desperate to attain fame and fortune as movie stars. It quickly became clear where James Caan envisioned his career heading when he made a habit of turning down a string of roles that would go on to become iconic in other hands.
He knocked back William Friedkin’s The French Connection, which won Gene Hackman an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ in a movie that won ‘Best Picture’, and he also rejected Jack Nicholson’s part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which went on to achieve exactly the same feats.
Caan wasn’t convinced by the screenplay for Kramer vs Kramer, which – surprise, surprise – would end up with Dustin Hoffman being named ‘Best Actor’ in a ‘Best Picture’ winner. Perhaps Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now? It was one of the greatest movies ever made, but the actor wasn’t interested in relocating to the jungle.
Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind? It was a rousing box office success, and Roy Neary was his for the taking. There’s a lot to be said for Caan maintaining the strength of his convictions and only signing on for projects that spoke to him as a thespian, but in an alternate timeline, he could have become a much bigger star than he ended up being if he’d taken even one of them.
Genre films, far-flung fantasies, gun-toting action flicks, sci-fi spectaculars, and broad comedies weren’t the sort of movies Caan ever envisioned himself making with any great sense of regularity, to the point there was even a hint of elitism to be found. He wanted to reach the mountaintop through talent alone, without becoming trapped in the maw of superstardom.
Harrison Ford probably began his own career with the same intentions, too, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Han Solo in Star Wars placed him on the A-list, Raiders of the Lost Ark solidified that position, which he’s been gripping tightly ever since.
Caan was a well-known actor who gave a string of accomplished performances in titles like The Godfather, The Gambler, Misery, and Brian’s Song, to name just a few, but he was never regarded as a star in the conventional sense. For him, though, top-tier dramatic chops weren’t required to make it big, and he used Ford as the perfect example.
He was one of the countless names who either auditioned or were under consideration to play the iconic spacefaring smuggler in George Lucas’ seminal sci-fi, but he seemed to believe he was on a level above such wanton and mindless effects-driven escapism.
Reflecting on what Star Wars would go on to become, Caan intimated to Howard Stern that Han Solo was beneath him. “They didn’t want an actor,” he sneered. “That’s why they got Harrison Ford.” A shot fired across the bows, but Ford wouldn’t have been losing any sleep over it when the movie – and its sequels – made him a household name the world over and marked a defining moment in what would ultimately be a legendary career.
