Why Ron Howard “couldn’t even get a damn audition” for ‘Star Wars’
There are some actors who make a habit of regularly collaborating with one filmmaker throughout the course of their careers, becoming a staple in their body of work and first person on the list whenever they start casting a new project.
It could be the fearless partnership between Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos, or the endearing lifelong friendship between Martin Scorsese and Robert de Niro, but there are many directors who have one actor on speed dial whenever they create something new.
This often gives them a head-start when their creative partner in crime starts work on a new film, being first in line to be considered for one of the leading roles, but this sadly wasn’t the case for Ron Howard when Lucas began casting his most iconic project.
While Howard is most well-known for his directorial work, there was a time when he was considered the most promising child star of his time, with an on-screen career that exploded after his leading role in Lucas’ 1973 film American Graffiti.
It’s a classic coming-of-age comedy about teenage drifters with nothing to do, charting a group of youngsters who spend a night driving around California and getting up to no good. There were many stars of the ’70s who appeared in the film, with the likes of Harrison Ford and Richard Dreyfuss dipping their toes into the Hollywood limelight through supporting roles in the project.
However, it was none other than Ron Howard who starred in the leading role, a breakthrough part that might have led people to believe that he would work with the director again. But much to his dismay, he wasn’t considered for his subsequent project, with the director expressing his dismay at losing out on what could’ve been, the role of a lifetime.
Howard shared how he had asked Lucas about his next project after wrapping American Graffiti, perhaps prying for a role on his next venture. But this conversation was not a fruitful one, with Howard saying, “I couldn’t even get a damn audition for Star Wars. I was saying to George, ‘Do you know what you want to do next?’ And he said, ‘Maybe, kind of. I’m just starting to write the story for it’. And I said, ‘Well what would it be?’ and he said, ‘Well it would be science fiction, but it would use all the special effects and technical breakthroughs that you could see in 2001 [Space Odyssey]”.
Upon hearing this description of what we now know as Star Wars, it’s safe to say that Howard wasn’t all that impressed. But later on, he was kicking himself at the missed opportunity to star in the series, saying, “That man had a vision and clearly knew that I didn’t fit into his vision because I couldn’t even, not only did I not get to read the script, I couldn’t even get in for an audition”.
While Harrison Ford was chosen to continue working in Lucas’ next story world, Howard was not, and it remained a bitter pill to swallow.
