Alden Ehrenreich is one of the most promising talents of this generation, as when he started acting he got the attention of one of the legendary filmmakers of the movie industry, Francis Ford Coppola. Although he has not appeared in many meaningful and big roles, he has surely made an influence in smaller but impactful roles. Ehrenreich has carved out a genre for himself as he constantly strives to come up with a Hollywood blockbuster by himself.
While the Oppenheimer actor seems confident in doing so, he has had a couple of rough years in the past, as he nearly quit acting after his acting skills were not enough to save Solo: A Star Wars Story. Alden Ehrenreich was devastated as he talked about how his life was affected after the failure of the 2018 film.
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Alden Ehrenreich Reconsiders His Life Choices As An Actor
Alden Ehrenreich’s performance always drew the attention of the crowd, as the actor was full of energy and charisma. Shortly after his show-stealing performance in Hail, Caesar, he bagged the role of Han Solo, in Solo: A Star Wars Story. His portrayal of the iconic character was remarkable and even got the praise of Harrison Ford, the actor who played the role of Han Solo in the original six Star Wars films.
However, Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t turn out to be a successful project, though it grossed $393.1 million at the worldwide box office. As a result, the Rules Don’t Apply actor reconsidered his life decisions. During an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Alden Ehrenreich talked about his feelings when he decided to take a break from acting after the 2018 film tanked at the box office.
“I loved the original spirit of how they wanted to make [Solo], and I did it because it was this great platform from which I could do my own thing. But what I realized at that point is: I hadn’t built my own thing enough to be able to do it…. I knew that I didn’t know myself in that way yet, and that takes a certain amount of time and effort and failure in its own kind of enclosed way. That’s what I spent that time doing.”
Ehrenreich added that after he returned, he was no longer shortlisted for the plum roles as he didn’t fit their criteria and some young actors have surpassed him, and he tends to live that over and over again.
“When you go back and want to do something, you realize that there’s other people on the list who have surpassed you, and you have to fight harder for a particular role that you want. I’ve lived that over and over again.”
The 34-year-old actor got a reality check and despite being so talented he is still replaceable. However, in the same interview, he shared that his interactions with A-tier actors weren’t nice at all.
Alden Ehrenreich Recalls His Experience With A-List Actors
The Beautiful Creatures actor has worked with several big names, such as George Clooney, Jeremy Irons, Cate Blanchett, and many more. However, in the same interview, the actor shared his bad experience with the other actors. Though they’ve been respectful towards him, he felt distant and isolated.
“I’ve had really good experiences working with big names—very few a**holes—but the drill typically is a ‘Hi, nice to meet you,’ and you do your work together, and you have some nice chitchat, and then they go into their world with their assistants and they travel into that universe that they live in,”
“I’ve come to sometimes expect from big names that they are not prepared, and it’s depressing.”
Though he had many bad experiences with other actors, it all disappeared, when he did Oppenheimer, which was packed with the biggest names in Hollywood and Ehrenreich had the best experience, all thanks to Robert Downey Jr.
Solo: A Star Wars Story can be streamed on Disney+.
