Christopher Walken has revealed that he auditioned for the original Star Wars movie.
Walken, who stars in the recent critically acclaimed movie Dune: Part Two, recalled the opportunity he had to star in George Lucas’ sci-fi action franchise, and shared the fellow Oscar-winner with whom he shared the process.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, the star opened up about the experience: “I think it was for Han Solo,” he shared. “Yes, I auditioned for it. And if I’m not mistaken, my partner in the audition was – I think this is true – it was Jodie Foster … I think we did a screen test.”
He continued: “I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras.”
“I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that,” he added.
Walken was ultimately unsuccessful as the role of Han Solo eventually went to Harrison Ford. However Foster revealed recently that she was actually offered the role of Princess Leia at the time, before turning it down, with the part going to Carrie Fisher.
Foster shared: “They were going for a younger Princess Leia but I had a conflict. I was doing a Disney movie and I just didn’t want to pull out of the Disney movie because I was already under contract.”
At the time of auditioning, Foster was around 13 or 14 years old, and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope premiered in 1977, just a year after Foster appeared opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
Elsewhere in the Vanity Fair interview, Walken shared his reasons for joining the Dune franchise for the sequel, which received a four-star review from NME. He explained:“I had, of course seen the first Dune a number of times. I loved it, and I admired [Denis Villeneuve’s] movies. Arrival, I thought, was wonderful.”
He continued: “And to be with all those terrific actors —Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Stellan Skarsgård—and to go to Budapest, which is a beautiful city. And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive.”
In its review of the movie, NME wrote: “Epic in scope and astonishing in its world-building, Dune: Part Two combines jaw-dropping visuals with imaginative action and morally complex plotting to thrilling effect.”