…If George Lucas had stuck to his original vision, Harrison Ford never would have been cast as Han Solo. Lucas had set a rule that he didn’t want to cast any actors from his earlier film American Graffiti, and Ford was one of them. Casting consultant Fred Roos hired Ford, who had a background in carpentry, to install a door at the American Zoetrope, where the Star Wars auditions were being held, in the hopes that his mere presence would change Lucas’ mind. Apparently, this worked.
“Mark was 24, I was 19 and Harrison was 33. He was like the big man on campus. You looked at him and you said to yourself, He’s going to be a star.” -Carrie Fisher
