Al Pacino jokes he made Harrison Ford a career by turning down Han Solo

• Al Pacino jokes he turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars as a favor to Harrison Ford.
• In reality, he turned down the role because he didn’t understand the part.
• Pacino reflects on his relationship with the “Movie Brats,” including Star Wars director George Lucas and The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola.

The Force was not with Al Pacino when he turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars — a choice he opened up about in his memoir Sonny Boy. Recently reflecting on that fateful decision further, the Oscar winner now jokes that he was simply doing Harrison Ford a favor.

“I said, ‘I think I’m in the mood to make Harrison Ford a career,'” the legendary actor quips to Entertainment Weekly while promoting his latest film, The Ritual (in theaters now), alongside his costar, Dan Stevens.

Strolling down memory lane, Pacino recalls his relationship with the so-called “Movie Brats,” a group of pioneering directors including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Brian De Palma, who helped pave the way for the New Hollywood movement of the mid-’60s to early ’80s.

Al Pacino and Francis Ford Coppola at the 2022 Oscars.

Neilson Barnard/Getty

“Zoetrope started in San Francisco with Spielberg and De Palma and Francis Coppola, and Scorsese,” Pacino explains. “They were in the late-’60s making this. They were real idealists coming into the ’70s with great films all over the globe. So it was a wonderful place that I actually saw, I went to the building and everything before I did Godfather with them,” he continues, referring to the Sentinel Building in San Francisco, purchased by Coppola as the headquarters for American Zoetrope.

“So I loved their work, but I was doing a show on Broadway at the time, and they handed me this script, and I thought, I don’t understand,” he said of reading the Star Wars script for the first time.

“[I thought], I must be out of space myself,” he joked. “But I looked at this thing and I sent it to Charlie Loughton, my friend and mentor, actually. I said, ‘What do you make of this?’ He was pretty wise and he said, ‘I don’t get it, Al. I dunno. I don’t get it.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t either; what are we going to do? They offered me a fortune, but I don’t know. No, I can’t play something if I don’t speak the language.'”

Harrison Ford as Han Solo on the set of ‘Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back’.

Lucasfilm/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Fortunately, everything worked out in the long run for all parties involved. Pacino continued his iconic career, starring in films including Norman Jewison’s And Justice for All, William Friedkin’s Cruising, and De Palma’s Scarface. And, of course, the role of Han Solo in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope went to Ford, transforming him into one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men.

Pacino also wasn’t the only actor Ford had to beat out to win the part of Han Solo. Sylvester Stallone has spoken about auditioning and being rejected for the role, and you can even watch Kurt Russell’s audition tape. Burt Reynolds told Business Insider in 2016 that, like Pacino, he was offered and turned down the part. “I didn’t want to play that kind of role at the time,” he said. “Now I regret it. I wish I would have done it.”