How Al Pacino turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars despite being offered a 'fortune'

In his memoirs, the famous Al Pacino recounted how he was offered the role of Han Solo in Star Wars after his Oscar-nominated role in The Godfather, but turned down the role of the space pirate smuggler.

Refused because he couldn’t “understand anything” from George Lucas’ script?

In a new interview, the actor joked that at the time he was “determined to make a career for Harrison Ford.”

Al Pacino recalled his connection with the “film guys” of the so-called New Hollywood, which included Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, as well as Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

In the 70s they were real idealists, and their films were shown all over the world. So it was a great time. 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 didn't understand anything about it.

Alfredo James Pacino

The actor recalled that he was struck by Han Solo’s phrases such as “This is a ship that covered the distance to Kessel in less than twelve parsecs. I outran the Imperial starships. Note that I'm not talking about trucks, but about large Corellian ships."

I looked at it and sent a text to Charlie Lawton, my friend and mentor. He was quite wise and said, “I don’t understand, Al. I don't know". And I answered: “Well, I don’t understand either; what are we going to do? They offered me a fortune. But, I won’t be able to play something if I don’t speak this language.”

Alfredo James Pacino