The tiny salary Harrison Ford was paid for first Star Wars

IT’S hard to imagine anyone other than Harrison Ford playing Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, but the 73-year-old says it almost didn’t happen.

IT’S hard to imagine anyone other than Harrison Ford playing Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, but the 73-year-old says it almost didn’t happen.

In an interview with Good Mornimg America, Ford said he was asked to read for the role in the original 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope, but he didn’t think he was even in the running for the part.

A producer friend of mine that produced American Graffiti somehow convinced to get me to read the lines with people that were auditioning for the parts of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker,” he said. “I thought I was just helping out.”

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in 1977.

But he was so good, that they offered him the part — and at a price you won’t believe.

“When the whole thing was over they asked if I wanted to play [him].”

“I said, ‘How much?’ And then they said $1,000 a week. And I said, ‘No.’ But I did, I did it for $1,000 a week. For the first one,” he added.

Ford will reprise his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is out on December 18.

So what brought him back to the franchise?

“A really good script,” he said. “The opportunity to work with J.J. who I admire. And it just seemed like a good idea.”