An Indecisive George Lucas Caused Kurt Russell To Walk Away From Star Wars
As a franchise, "Star Wars" has always attracted some great actors. For the first film, hundreds of people tried (and failed) to audition for the main roles that turned Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford into some of the greatest stars on the planet — though for a hot second Hamill thought he was going to appear in "Carrie" instead. This means there are many other actors who didn't get in on the "Star Wars" action. This includes the likes of Christopher Walken and Jodie Foster for the original film, but even for the sequel trilogy, everyone from Michael B. Jordan to Dev Patel auditioned and lost out on parts.
Another performer who almost starred in "Star Wars" is none other than Kurt Russell, one of our finest genre actors. In an interview with The Daily Beast shortly before "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Russell opened up about almost joining the galaxy far, far away and being up for not just the role of Han Solo but also Luke Skywalker, too.
"That was back in the day when all the usual suspects in their twenties would roll in there, and it was early 1976 because at the same time was a television Western called 'The Quest' that they were offering me," Russell recalled. "I was in there on 'Star Wars' and remember asking George [Lucas] one day, 'Do you think you're going to use me or not?' And he said, 'I don't know which part I prefer you in. I don't know if I like you as Han and this guy as Skywalker, or this guy as Han and you as Skywalker. I don't know.'"
That's high praise for an actor, to be considered for both the lead and the standout fan-favorite rogue, but it also meant Lucas was taking his sweet time deciding.
Missed opportunity, or fate?
When Lucas just couldn't give Russell an answer on which character (if any) he'd play in "Star Wars," the actor decided to walk away. "So I said, 'All right, I'm going to go take this Western and there will be one less guy to think about.' I don't know if he would've hired me."
You can judge for yourself whether Russell looks like a good fit by checking out his audition tape. Still, it's probably for the best that he missed out on the franchise. After all, in 1979, just a couple of years after "Star Wars," Russell acted in "Elvis," making the transition from child actor to a proper Hollywood actor. More importantly, it established a collaboration between Russell and John Carpenter that lasted for years and resulted in some of the best genre films of the '80s. If Russell had piloted the Millennium Falcon, we may never have got "The Thing," "Escape from New York," or any of their other movies together.