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The love affair of Han and Leia
Star Wars: Episode V—The Episode Strikes Back
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan & Leigh Brackett
Director: Irvin Kershner
What would have happened if Han Solo had delivered the response to Leia’s “I love you” as written and planned during the making of The Empire Strikes Back? Would Han have been viewed any different over the years, less cool and detached? Would this moment have less impact, just a good story beat amongst many others in the film? Would hand towels and matching T-shirts have been made if Lawrence Kasdan’s original lines made it onto the screen? (Leia: “I love you. I couldn’t tell you before, but it’s true.” Han: “Just remember that, because I’ll be back.”) Fortunately, we’ll never really know. Leia said, “I love you,” and Han said, “I know.” Harrison Ford’s insightful change to the scene had made it to the screen, creating a behind-the-scenes urban legend and giving us the very heart of the saga’s most popular love affair.
The story of “I know” is the one of the first behind-the-scenes tidbits you learn as a young Star Wars fan, no matter when you discover the series. Harrison Ford improvised the line. Right then and there. It’s a tale told time and time again in the aisles of comic shops, out on the playground, and amongst like-minded friends. Almost none of it is true, though, even the stories told by some of the people that made the movie. The 2004 Lucasfilm approved documentary Empire of Dreams, itself a must watch, has both Harrison Ford and director Irvin Kershner telling different tales of the moment. Harrison says “George” had written the original dialogue and that he felt there was a missed opportunity with the established character of Han Solo. Kershner seems to back up the improvisation theory by saying he just told Harrison to say the first thing that comes to mind, leading to the gut reaction of “I know.” Neither of those versions is one hundred percent true, almost as if Obi-Wan Kenobi himself was telling them from a certain point of view, but it only added to the myth. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend…or make a documentary about it.
The truth is a little more convoluted and laced with tremendously more on-set drama. Ford did feel as though this was a missed opportunity and sat with Kershner to suggest the scene go as it would eventually be seen. Journalist Alan Arnold had been on set, compiling behind-the-scenes stories for a book and had audio cassette recordings of not only the historic suggestion from Ford but the fallout. Carrie Fisher had not been present for the conversation and was understandably angry with Kershner later on and upon learning it from Ford first and not her director; she gives Kershner a tongue-lashing fit for a rebel princess (after doing the same thing to Ford). Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan never seemed to like the change, bemoaning in a 1981 interview with Star Log Magazine that he felt “their romance had a touch of falseness to it.” Kershner also seems split on whether or not he immediately took to the suggestion, depending on the interview clip you’re consuming. Same goes for George Lucas with a 2010 Vanity Fair interview with Kershner apparently revealing that Lucas wanted two screenings of the movie with the original version of the scene shown in one and the Ford-changed scene in the other. Legend has it the original version screening never happened due to the audience response to the “I know” version. Some forty years later, if you put that all together as Gwynne Watkins did in a 2015 article for Yahoo!, you have a closer version of the truth.
Or you can just hold onto the idea of Harrison Ford doing a crazy make ’em up like Han Solo himself.
Your choice.
Regardless of the fascinating truth, what remains is perhaps what should have always been there: the core moment of Han and Leia’s love affair. When you think of Han Solo and Princess Leia, this is the moment that comes to mind. Which is not to suggest that other scenes before and others that came later, including their last embrace in The Force Awakens, don’t stack up to this. This scene, this very moment, however, is their entire relationship in one timeless snapshot.
Leia has been too busy leading a rebellion to allow herself the time and freedom to verbalize her love for Han. In many ways, she just couldn’t afford to. Leia is always going to put the needs of the big picture—the galaxy, the Rebellion, government—above herself. She was even supposed to be Luke’s first Jedi student but turned away from that path, so she could better serve the New Republic as a leader. As she watches Han be sent down a path with an unknown, and most likely fatal, fate, she finally allows herself the freedom to admit her love to Han and, more importantly, herself. And Han knows it.
Han’s response, though, should never be interpreted solely as flippant and unaffected. With the romantic life of these characters now played out over multiple films and stories, we can look back to this moment as Han’s unwavering belief in their love and his understanding of Leia’s sense of duty and her greater purpose. He already knew she loved him and was willing to wait for her to finally come to terms with it. This isn’t whip-smart banter and a kiss on the Millennium Falcon. This is forever, even with death looming, and Han isn’t being cocky. (I mean, maybe a little bit, this is Han after all.) Han just knows it.
The love story of Han and Leia isn’t the most perfect relationship in the saga. It’s not without hardships and realistic stumbles. And its ending is tragic, but the story of these two characters on screen is not unlike the behind-the-scenes story of how this moment came to be. In many ways, it wasn’t supposed to happen. Nothing ended up as it was written. It took on a life of its own and, piece by piece, things fell into place and the love story of Han and Leia did not go as it was planned, but as it should be. And that, in the end, is the only thing we need to know.