SCAR WARS
Han Solo actor Alden Ehrenreich saw his uncle stab his father to death at the age of 8
We reveal the relative unknown actor's secret childhood torment which shaped Ehrenreich's career
ON paper, privately educated LA rich kid Alden Ehrenreich does not appear to have the troubled past needed to get into the mindset of Star Wars “space pirate” Han Solo.
The decision to cast the relatively unknown 28-year-old as the younger version of Harrison Ford’s famous rogue has been questioned for the best part of two years — despite him coming recommended by Steven Spielberg.
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He had the handsome looks but there were rumours producers had to call in an acting coach to steer him though filming.
But following last night’s premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story in Cannes, The Sun can reveal that Alden — described by Harrison as “spectacular” in the film — is not the cosseted Californian he appears to be and has been hiding a family tragedy.
When he was aged just eight, Alden went with dad Mark to pick up his mentally ill uncle Edward for what should have been a happy festive celebration.
They never made it to the family Hanukkah gathering in December 1997, because on tree-lined Magnolia Avenue in Long Beach, LA, Edward suddenly pulled out a kitchen knife.
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Encouraged by voices telling him to kill, brought on by years of drug abuse, he stabbed his brother.
Bleeding badly, accountant Mark drove a few hundred yards to a petrol station, using his last reserves of energy to make a frantic 911 call.
His wounds were too severe for Alden’s dad to be saved and he died in hospital, aged 43.
It was a violent end that scarred the Ehrenreich family.
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Last night, Alden’s uncle Nicholas Benedict, 71, who was married to Mark and Edward’s sister Ava, said: “That must have been very traumatising for such a young boy.
“The last time I saw Alden was at the funeral for Mark, they had a get together at the house. It’s an incredibly tragic story.
“When Edward was younger he was heavily into LSD. He went overboard and freaked out — it screwed him up.
“He was in a halfway house the whole time I was married to Ava.”
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Mark had gone to collect Edward from the halfway house.
Actor Nicholas, who has appeared in TV shows including The Dukes Of Hazzard, continued: “He was crazy, he had schizophrenia, didn’t take his meds, then killed his brother.
“Apparently Edward was waiting for him with a kitchen knife.
“The devil told him to kill Mark or something like that. He was having hallucinations.”
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Edward, aged 47 at the time of the stabbing, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and waived the right to a jury trial.
The prosecution and judge accepted he was not fit to be cross-examined in court, and he was sent to a secure mental health institution where he is believed to have died in 2005.
Understandably, it is a part of Alden’s past that he has been reluctant to speak about publicly.
His mother Sari, an interior designer, did a remarkable job in giving her only child the stable upbringing he needed after a turbulent start to life.
When is Solo: A Star Wars Story out in the UK, watch the new trailer and find out who’s in the cast
She married Hollywood dentist Harry Aronowitz, and they brought Alden up in the very safe and wealthy area of Pacific Palisades.
Alden credited his mum as the one who “always cultivated my imagination from the time I was very little”.
Supporting his growing interest in film, they paid for Alden, who was named after Field Of Dreams director Phil Alden Robinson, to attend the £28,000-a-year Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences.
Former pupils of the celebrity school in Santa Monica include Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Jack Black, Jonah Hill and Zooey Deschanel.
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It was his late father’s work as an accountant for the biggest mover and shaker in Hollywood — director Steven Spielberg — that was to lead to Alden’s first break.
Steven was at a bat mitzvah when he saw a madcap video the then 14-year-old Alden had made for his friend’s coming of age ceremony.
It featured him pretending to break into her house and try on her clothes.
The Oscar-winning director was so impressed that he put out the word about the youngster, leading to Alden winning small roles in TV shows CSI and Supernatural. It was a good job Alden did not listen to his parents ahead of the party.
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He once recalled: “We showed the video to our parents beforehand — ‘We’re gonna play this at her bat mitzvah’ — and they were like, ‘You look like an idiot in this. I don’t think you should really do that.’ We didn’t care.”
From there he secured a lead role in 2009’s Tetro, directed by The Godfather’s Francis Ford Coppola, and then The Coen Brothers’ Hail, Caesar! two years ago.
Just two months after Coen comedy came out, it was announced Alden had beaten Brit Taron Egerton and 1,600 others to the coveted role of intergalactic smuggler Solo.
It did not take long for rumours to spread that the film, about the origins of the beloved Star Wars character, was in trouble.
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Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were ditched owing to Disney’s concerns about their freewheeling style, and there were suggestions Alden had complained about their approach.
It was also said that the film’s producers had drafted in an acting coach to help the relatively inexperienced actor.
In a recent interview Alden denied both claims, saying it was “not at all” true that he opposed the original directors and insisted the coach was just “part of conversations that happened for a couple weeks at one point”.
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Apollo 13 and Da Vinci Code director Ron Howard took over, re-shooting most of the movie at Pinewood Studios in Bucks and spending almost double its £145million budget.
According to reviews so far, it was money well spent. It has been described as the funniest Star Wars yet and Harrison, 75, said of Alden: “I just thought it was spectacular, and I thought he was so smart about what he did and how he did it. I just couldn’t be happier.”
Stars including Alden Ehrenreich and Emilia Clarke attend the red carpet Premier of Solo: A Starwars movie
If it is a hit, Alden will be making at least two more Solo movies.
That means the largely private actor will have to get used to a totally different celebrity universe.
He has tried to keep his girlfriends secret in the past but he dated Zoe Worth, who he met at New York University before going out with actress Kelsey McNamee for at least four years.
Alden said: “I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation — it’s a calling. You have an inner intuition, an inner ‘yes’.”
The Don of U.S. Charts
HE may be playing the lead in one of this year’s biggest films but Alden Ehrenreich is in danger of being upstaged by his co-star.
Donald Glover, who plays frenemy Lando Calrissian, is No1 in the US singles charts as his alter-ego Childish Gambino with This Is America. It has so far been streamed 110million times around the world since its release just over a week ago.
The actor, writer and stand-up comedian, is proving to be a sensation.
The provocative video for his latest song starts with a shirtless Donald dancing before suddenly shooting a hooded man and rapping: “This is America.”
With lyrics about “police be trippin’ now” and imagery of a massacre of a black choir, Donald, 34, has made a powerful political satire on the United States.
It is light years away from the family friendly Solo movie. In Ron Howard’s spin-off he plays Lando, right, who loses the Millennium Falcon to pal Han.
He said: “I told my agent, ‘If there’s a Han Solo movie, Lando’s gotta be in it, and I wanna be Lando’. And to his credit – and I appreciate it – he was like, ‘I don’t like your odds’.”
Donald could prove to be inspired casting thanks to his perfect comic timing.
Born to Jehovah’s Witnesses in Atlanta, Georgia, Donald got his break in 2006, aged 23, when Tina Fey hired him for her writing team on hit TV series 30 Rock.
In 2009 he starred in sitcom Community and wrote himself a lead role in the drama Atlanta. After Solo he will voice Simba in the live-action remake of The Lion King.
Off-screen he became a dad for the first time 18 months ago with long-time girlfriend Michelle. They recently had a second son.
- Solo: A Star Wars Story is in cinemas on May 24.
- Additional reporting: Andy Tillett
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