The Who2 Blog

The ‘Star Wars’ Audition Tapes

Blast from the distant past: Kurt Russell tries out for the part of Han Solo in Star Wars

…and Robbie Benson reads for Luke Skywalker, with Harrison Ford feeding him lines.

Yow.

It’s easy to imagine Russell as Han Solo — and this was five years before he channeled his inner scoundrel as Snake Plissken in Escape From New York — but poor Robbie seems halfway into a nap.

To be fair, that famous Lucas dialogue can’t have been easy to read cold: “You can’t find Organa Major?” “Look at those radiation readouts!”

We’re lucky it all turned out as brilliantly as it did. For two movies, anyway.

(Tip o’ the stormtrooper helmet to Mike Duffy.)

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