Star Wars Actor “Blew Up” His Spider-Man Audition: “I Was Woefully Unprepared”

After Tobey Maguire played the web-slinger in three live-action movies directed by Sam Raimi, Sony rebooted the franchise via The Amazing Spider-Man, with Andrew Garfield being cast as the titular character. He reprised the role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, with his return after seven years being one of the most exciting aspects of the latter film. Before Garfield was officially cast, another actor who came close to landing the part was Alden Ehrenreich, who later played a young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz, Ehrenreich admitted that when it came to his The Amazing Spider-Man audition, “In that moment I didn’t really want to do it, to be honest . . . Clearly, they created something that breathed new life into it. All that existed at that time, now we’re in this moment where 18 different people have played Spider-Man, but all that existed at that time was the Tobey Maguire [movies]. And it seemed like it was the same story . . . But I felt like I had to audition for it.”

As a result of feeling this way, Ehrenreich admitted that “I showed up woefully unprepared. In a way that I would never do later [in my career]. I was 22 or 21 and I kinda showed up not memorized. [I] got there and there was a full set. There was a scene with 10 actors having dinner, and they were off-book, and I was not. And so, if I did have a chance for that, then I think I blew that up.”

He clarified that even if he had shown up better prepared with the lines fully memorized, “I’m not suggesting that I would’ve gotten the role. I think Andrew Garfield is one of the best actors of my generation, easily, he’s incredible, and I’m sure he would’ve gotten it anyway.”

Ehrenreich has no regrets about the way it ultimately turned out because “I also just felt that it wasn’t my role and it wasn’t right for me. I didn’t wanna do it. I don’t know. I, in that moment, really didn’t wanna do it, to be honest. Getting really famous at 22 would’ve been a bad idea, probably. I’ve been very lucky that it’s been very gradual over the years.”

Being cast as the new Spider-Man would have immediately made Ehrenreich an international star, but, in his words, his rise to stardom has “been very gradual” instead. After starting out with appearances in episodes of Supernatural and CSI, he starred in movies such as 2013’s Blue Jasmine and 2016’s Hail, Caesar!, with the Coen brothers’ film being his breakout role that received extensive acclaim.

While Solo was a box office disappointment and received mixed reviews, Ehrenreich’s performance received a great deal of praise, including from Harrison Ford himself. The financial results meant that there were no sequels to his Star Wars movie, but he has starred in plenty of other films in recent years, including the dark comedy Cocaine Bear, Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award-winning Oppenheimer, and Zach Cregger’s hit horror movie Weapons.

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Despite not being cast as Spider-Man, Ehrenreich did join the MCU in Disney+’s Ironheart, in which he plays Zeke Stane, the son of original Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Most recently, he played the dual roles of editor Edward Ridgeway and iconic literary character Tom Ripley in A Talent for Murder, in which the former tries to convince Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren) to write one more Ripley novel.

As for upcoming projects, Ehrenreich is in the romantic comedy film The Last Resort, which has finished filming and features a cast that includes fellow Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley and the late Sam Neill. He is also in Miami Vice ’85, which is in production, and also stars Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler, Camila Morrone, Danny Ramirez, John Leguizamo, Edi Gathegi, Walton Goggins, Dominic Sessa, and Haley Lu Richardson.

Had Ehrenreich been cast in The Amazing Spider-Man, his career trajectory would have been very different, and likely would not have led to many of the projects and roles he is now known for. Now that he is in the MCU, there is always the possibility of him returning to that role and crossing paths with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man or other variants of the character down the line as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man