Christopher Walken and Jodie Foster were among the hundreds of actors vying for roles in George Lucas’ Star Wars.
The Dune: Part Two star recounted his audition for Han Solo — a role that eventually went to Harrison Ford — and shared that he did a screen test with Foster, who was going for the part of Princess Leia.
“I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras,” Walken told Vanity Fair of his audition. “We might have just sat there and did the name, rank and serial number type of thing. I would say that, Yes, I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that.”
He also auditioned for Love Story at the time, but noted “it’s probably just as well that I didn’t get either one of them.”
In January, Foster stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she revealed that not only did she audition for the role of Leia but was also offered the part.
“They were going for a younger Princess Leia, but I had a conflict,” the Oscar-winning actress told the late night host. “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.”
Had they cast Foster instead of Carrie Fisher in the role of Princess Leia, the film would have been quite different, considering Fisher was 19 at the time, whereas the Nyad star was 13 or 14.
“They did an amazing job,” Foster said of the actors who got the parts. “I don’t know how good I would have been. I might have had different hair. I might have gone with a pineapple [hairstyle, instead of Fisher’s iconic Danish pastry style for Leia].”
Elsewhere in the conversation with Vanity Fair, Walken reflected on why he wanted to portray Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two after taking a four-year hiatus from big-screen roles.
He explained that he had seen the first Dune multiple times and loved it. He also admired Villeneuve’s work, especially Arrival, and the star-studded cast didn’t hurt either.
“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,” the Oscar winner said. “And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive.”
Dune: Part Two is in theaters now.
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