Star Wars Trivia Alert: That Was Not Harrison Ford In Carbonite
Having seen the production prop of Han Solo in carbonite up close — and shared photos of it here on /Film — I can say that it very much resembles Harrison Ford. There's a catch, however. The prop was made from a cast of Ford's face and hands, with a different "Star Wars" actor standing in for the rest of his body.
Nick Maley, the make-up artist who helped bring Yoda to life for "The Empire Strikes Back," runs his own "Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit" in Sint Maarten in the Netherlands. According to the museum's website, it's been "rated as the #1 most popular (individual) activity in St Maarten by TripAdvisor since 2012."
If you can't make it there to see the exhibit up close, here's the next best thing: a video in which Maley himself explains the mystery behind whose body it is — if not Ford's — that we see in carbonite in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."
Bossk Body-Doubled for Han Solo
In the video, Maley says he believes he's "the last person still living who made the original life cast of Harrison Ford in order to put Han into carbonite."
"You don't do a full body cast of your main actor if you don't have to," he says. This is why he and his fellow makeup and creature effect artists used Alan Harris as a stand-in for Ford, subbing in his body instead.
Harris also had a notable role in "The Empire Strikes Back," but if you look at his IMDb page, you might not immediately recognize his face. In the movie, it was hidden behind the mask of Bossk, the reptilian bounty hunter who snarled down at Admiral Piett on the deck of a Super Star Destroyer.
As a proud bounty hunter on the level of Boba Fett (who has his own Disney+ series coming this Christmas), Bossk didn't take kindly to being called "scum" by an Imperial officer. Fun fact: Bossk's name, according to Wookieepedia, means "devours his prey" in the fictional Dosh language.
Sadly, Harris passed away last year, but it's interesting to know that he was the one who sat in and had a full-body plaster mold applied to him so the crew could give life to Han's carbonite chamber.
"Star Wars" history is full of unsung heroes like this. The next time you're playing with your Bossk action figure, and/or watching "The Empire Strikes Back" — which we've scientifically proven to be the best "Star Wars" movie — just remember that Bossk and that body in carbonite, the one with Ford's face, were one and the same actor.