Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover are the luckiest scruffy-looking nerf herders in the galaxy. Ehrenreich was cast as Han Solo in the upcoming "Star Wars" spinoff, with Glover recently making his own dream come true to land the role of Lando Calrissian.Both actors weighed in on their career-making castings in separate interviews -- Glover in a fun talk on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and Ehrenreich in a new Interview magazine Q&A.
Glover told Ellen, "It's really crazy. I don't know. I'm very honored. It's a very big deal." He noticed that the Internet has been passing around a photo of him in high school wearing a "Star Wars" T-shirt. Lando was the first toy he ever had, he said, and he had a Darth Vader toy as well. Glover said he told his dad about his Lando casting immediately. "He was like, 'Aww.' My mom was in the back; she was like, 'Don't mess it up! Don't mess this up!' 'Cause Billy Dee [Williams] — like, that's hers."
Watch his talk:
Over at Interview magazine, Ehrenreich mentioned he was in London at the moment doing "prep stuff for Star Wars," even though he wasn't quite sure where all of the filming locations would be.
Ehrenreich also talked about meeting with Han Solo directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and the surreal process of being cast from among a sea of hopefuls:
"Well, I had an audition process that went on for a long time, and I got to spend a lot of time with the guys who are directing the film. Getting to be around them and being around the world a little bit has been the main experience so far. I did my audition on the Millennium Falcon for one of my screen tests, which was pretty cool. [...] I'm just excited to be a part of the movie. It's always the particulars that are the most exciting. The idea of it is really exciting, but the most fun part is the actual job you get to do: the character that you get to play, the people that you work with, the day-to-day experience. I haven't started this yet, but that's where I feel the most grateful."
Ehrenreich said hasn't met Harrison Ford yet, and since "it's still kinda early" he didn't have an answer to what he planned to bring to the iconic character. He chose his words carefully, probably very aware that everything he says and does now will be analyzed with Force. Read his full Q&A.
The Han Solo movie is scheduled to start filming in early 2017 for release in 2018.
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