Alden Ehrenreich reflects on the "amazing adventure" that was Solo: A Star Wars Story

Alden Ehrenreich has been absent from the big screen for a little while now. Following the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which had an infamously difficult production, Ehrenreich – who played the famous nerf-herder Han Solo – has stood away from the spotlight. His instinct, following Solo's release, was to take a break.

"Movie time’ is so funny,” he tells Total Film in the new issue while promoting his new series Brave New World. “Solo was a three-year experience, all said and done. I had been away from home pretty much for about three years. And not only on a personal side, but also as an actor and artist – the well’s dry. You haven’t had a whole lot of experience in real relationships with people.”

Looking back on the whole Solo experience, he calls it “an amazing adventure”, an unmissable opportunity to see first-hand how the upper echelon of blockbuster-scale movies are made. “It demystifies something that is very mystified,” he laughs. The film seems to have undergone something of a minor-scale reevaluation in the Disney Plus era, something that Ehrenreich theorises is down to the enormous expectations viewers (including himself, when he first heard about it) bring to a ‘Han Solo Movie’. “For it to be able to be seen would take a second [viewing]. And I think that’s borne itself out. And it really means a lot, and is wonderful, especially with kids, who are excited about it.”

It was also a learning experience about “the internet media version of things,” he explains. “for instance, that movie, it didn’t do as well as other Star Wars movies, but it still did well for a movie. And so it was kind of this medium thing. But that’s not newsworthy. Even at high-level journalism, there’s an intense pressure, sometimes, it feels like, to catastrophise or celebrate... And I think that’s really fucking dangerous, especially when it pertains to the stuff that really matters, like the state of the world... An article headline that says ‘things are complicated, and there are good sides and bad sides’ isn’t getting the emotional response. And I just think we really have to take a step back, and give a lot more thought to the way our emotions are being run by the stories we’re getting inundated with.”

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The full interview with Ehrenreich features in the new issue of Total Film. Also in the issue, Florence Pugh and Scarlett Johansson – as well as director Cate Shortland, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, and O-T Fagbenle – discuss Black Widow at length. You can also see exclusive images from the Marvel Phase 4 movie here. 

Total Film is available now, while Brave New World is on Peacock in the US and arrives on Sky One on October 2 in the UK. Check out the new covers of Total Film below; the one on the right is subscribers-only.

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