The rise and fall of Alden Ehrenreich

When was the last time being cast as Han Solo made somebody less famous?

Trick question! Only two people have ever been cast as Han Solo, and we certainly know how it worked out for Harrison Ford.

But it's a trick question that does have an answer, which is: 2018, when Solo: A Star Wars Story was released.

Have you heard from Alden Ehrenreich since then?

I haven't. But then again, I didn't watch the 2020 TV series Brave New World. But then again, that's the only thing Ehrenreich has appeared in these past five years.

It makes me almost sorry for having written this post, when Ehrenreich was first cast, and the only thing I'd ever seen him in was the disappointing Coens movie Hail, Caesar! Simply put, I questioned his ascendancy ... and it appears everyone else soon started to do the same.

In fact, until I saw him in the movie that prompted the writing of this post, I had forgotten that I had forgotten him. 

Could it really be that Solo was so underwhelmingly received that it did, indeed, put the brakes on Ehrenreich's career?

I wouldn't have thought so, but I don't know what else to conclude. I did a little light googling to find out if I'd missed some story about how he opted out of the entertainment industry, or had some scandal that got him cancelled, but of course I found nothing.

Well, he clearly hasn't opted out of the industry because he has a starring role in Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear.

And guess what? I really liked him! It was by far my favorite Alden Ehrenreich performance to date.

Sadly, he and O'Shea Jackson Jr. were the only things I really liked about the movie. It had a few very fleeting moments of inspiration, when it approached being the thing I wanted it to be, but then would go back to being about as uninteresting as a movie about a bear addicted to cocaine could ever be.

But I felt myself rooting for Ehrenreich, strangely enough, and feeling good about the fact that he has two more movies set for a release in 2023, one of which is from one of the biggest directors we have: Christopher Nolan. 

Now, there are 13 actors listed a head of him on the cast list for Oppenheimer -- but I guess it's a start.

So maybe this piece should really be called "The rise and fall and rise of Alden Ehrenreich." And maybe now he's coming into the charisma that wowed everyone else, but not me, back when he first came on the scene. 

What's the big deal about Alden Ehrenreich?

If you're having to learn a new name today, you shouldn't be.

Sure, Alden Ehrenreich has just been cast as Han Solo in the upcoming Star Wars universe prequel slated for 2018. But even before that, it seemed as though he was all anyone could talk about after they saw Hail, Caesar! (No, that sentence is not punctuated by enthusiasm -- the title has an exclamation point in it.)

I was not a big fan of Hail, Caesar!, as we already covered in this post. But when discussing it afterward with my equally disenchanted viewing companion, I did mention a few scenes I thought were really entertaining. I mentioned the Scarlett Johansson mermaid number and the Channing Tatum sailor number.

I did not mention Alden Ehrenreich, but not just because I didn't know his name. He simply didn't make an impression on me. I didn't think he had much charisma, and only part of that was the fact that he was playing a character without much charisma. He just simply didn't register. Or rather, the only reason he registered was that he was the only cast member I didn't recognize.

So it was with some amount of surprise that I noticed people whose movie views I respect stumbling over themselves to praise Ehrenreich, and the movie around him. In fact, even those who were a bit more lukewarm on the movie couldn't stop talking about the star-making performance Ehrenreich gave.

Did I miss something?

Oh, he's handsome enough. But that alone won't take you very far in Hollywood. You have to have a star quality, and I just didn't see it in Ehrenreich. Clearly, everyone else did, including Disney, who just made him Han Solo.

I suppose part of the reason I'm disappointed in this development is that I still had hopes for one Anthony Ingruber, the guy known as "that guy who does a dead-on Harrison Ford impersonation." Not only are Ingruber's Youtube videos incredible, but he actually gave quite a charismatic performance as a young version of Ford's character in last year's The Age of Adaline. In short, I'm in the bag for this guy.

I can see why Disney didn't consider Ingruber famous enough or probably talented enough to play the role, and in fact, I don't even think he was one of the finalists. But it's not like Ehrenreich is significantly more experienced, or as far as I can tell, more talented. You try to grab these guys on the way up, so by the time your movie comes out, they are famous and they function as a box office draw in and of themselves. And I suppose Ehrenreich is more likely to be that guy than Ingruber.

And sure, Ingruber's Ford impersonation is probably more of a party trick than something you can bank on. Besides, in movies like this, you want the actor to make the character their own, rather than just use an impersonation as a crutch. But even in terms of straight charisma, I give Ingruber the edge over Ehrenreich.

I didn't get Hail, Caesar! and I don't get Alden Ehrenreich.

Hopefully, I'll be on the same page as the rest of you by the time Han Solo comes out.