Al Pacino Remembers Turning Down Han Solo Role In ‘Star Wars’: ‘I Gave Harrison Ford A Career’

“Star Wars” could have been a whole lot different.

Appearing onstage for a talk this week at The 92nd Street Y in New York, Al Pacino remembered being offered iconic part of Han Solo in “Star Wars”.

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“Well, I turned down ‘Star Wars.’ When I first came up, I was the new kid on the block, you know what happens when you first become famous,” he recalled, according to Variety. “It’s like, ‘Give it to Al.’ They’d give me Queen Elizabeth to play.”

He continued, “They gave me a script called ‘Star Wars.’ … They offered me so much money. I don’t understand it. I read it. … So I said I couldn’t do it. I gave Harrison Ford a career.”

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Pacino also talked about other important films from throughout his career, including giving some insight into his wild performance in the crime classic “Heat”.

“Here’s the thing with ‘Heat’: I hope you see it again, audience. I was playing this cop, and I found a way in, but this is a detective who’s kind of wild. I thought he probably chipped cocaine,” he said.

“That will explain to you some of my, uh…,” Pacino laughed. “The thing is, there was no cocaine sniffing in the film, but I was.”