It’s not very easy for some people to express their feelings. Han Solo is such a person. When Princess Leia said “I love you” moments before he descended into the carbon freezing chamber during The Empire Strikes Back, he didn’t say it back. Instead he said, “I know.” Whether you are more like Leia or more like Han, you’ll enjoy reading about the making of this memorable Star Wars scene.
The following text is from “Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays” by Laurent Bouzereau.
The idea of putting Han in carbon freeze first appeared in the second draft. Before Han gets frozen, Leia tells him: “I love you. I was afraid to tell you before, but it’s true.” Han replies: “I’ll be back.” In the third draft Han replies: “Just remember that, ’cause I’ll be back.”
Director Irvin Kershner: “The only difference I ever had with George on cutting happened when Han is about to go into the freezing chamber and Leia tells him, ‘I love you.’ When I was shooting the scene Han was supposed to reply: ‘I love you, too.’ So we did a take, and I said, ‘Wait a minute, Harrison, I don’t like the dialogue.’ It’s like she wins, she said it first, and ‘I love you, too’ is pretty weak stuff for Han Solo because he is too smart, too arrogant for that.
“So Harrison asked, “What do you want?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know; let’s improvise.’ So Leia says: ‘I love you,’ and he goes: ‘Yeah, yeah.’ And we tried it again and again with different lines, and finally Harrison says, ‘I give up, I don’t know what to say.’
“The crew is hating me by now; it’s hot, we’re way up high on this set, they’re all hungry, it was a nightmare. Finally Harrison says, ‘Let’s do it one more time and that’s it.’ So she says, ‘I love you,’ and he replies, ‘I know.’ And it just came out of him, and I said ‘Cut!’ The assistant turns to me and says, ‘You’re not going to use this, are you?’ And I said, ‘Why not? It’s perfect.’ When I cut the film, George looked at the scene and said, ‘In the script it was something like “I love you, too,” wasn’t it?’ I told him, ‘Yes but it’s such a stinky line for Han Solo that we had to change it.’
“George was worried the audience was going to laugh and that it would break the tension. I felt very strongly about this, and George said, ‘All right, when we show the film the first time, we’ll show it your way, and then we’ll show it the way it was written.’ So we sneak previewed the film in North Beach, and when the line came, the audience roared. George turns to me and says, ‘You see, it’s a mistake.’ Now the picture is over, people start coming out, and they’re all taking about the line, saying how great it was. They all noticed it. So we kept it in the film. George is very flexible; he knows what he wants, but he is flexible, and that’s why I like him so much.”
