If you’ve been following what’s been going on behind the scenes of the Star Wars spinoff movie, Solo, you’ll no doubt be aware that it’s been plagued with issues.
In summary, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (best-known for The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street) were replaced by Ron Howard when they were at the last leg of the movie (they had as much as three quarters of it finished).
They were reportedly fired by Lucasfilm studio boss Kathleen Kennedy over “creative differences”.
Now an actor who worked on the film for four months under the direction of Miller and Lord last year, and from October with Howard, has offered some details on what happened. The actor was described as “not one of the film’s marquee stars” but “in a prime position to observe the directors’ contrasting on-set modi operandi.”
According to the actor, Lord and Miller were simply out of their depth with the production, which had a bigger budget and was on a bigger scale than anything they’d worked on before. The source described how the duo directors would have 30 takes of a given scene, unsure of what they wanted other than that the take should be “different”.
“Phil and Chris are good directors, but they weren’t prepared for Star Wars,” said the actor. “After the 25th take, the actors are looking at each other like, ‘This is getting weird.’ [Lord and Miller] seemed a bit out of control. They definitely felt the pressure; with one of these movies, there are so many people on top of you all the time. The first assistant director was really experienced and had to step in to help them direct a lot of scenes.”
Howard, meanwhile, required no more than two or three takes and the actor emphasised his efficiency. “When he came on, he took control and you could feel it,” the source said. “He got respect immediately. He’s really confident. A really easy guy to work with.”
Additionally, an acting coach had to be brought in for lead Alden Ehrenreich as he wasn’t able to capture the essence of Harrison Ford’s performance, who preceded him in the role.
Joy Fehily, a spokesperson for Miller and Lord says: “This information is completely inaccurate,” but declined to cite specific inaccuracies.
