George Lucas’ Waffling Made Kurt Russell Walk Away From Star Wars
By RAFAEL MOTAMAYOR
As a franchise, "Star Wars" has always attracted great actors. For the first film, hundreds of people auditioned for the leading roles, including Kurt Russell.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Russell opened up about almost joining the galaxy far, far away by being up for the roles of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.
Russell said that he'd already been offered a role in a television Western called "The Quest," so he went to George Lucas and asked whether or not he was going to hire him.
Lucas told him, "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."
When Lucas couldn't answer Russell, 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.'"