Steven Spielberg Discovered Young Han Solo at Bat Mitzvah

They say it’s all about being in the right place at the right time in showbiz.

It’s definitely the case for Alden Ehrenreich, who was just cast as young Han Solo (originally played by the iconic Harrison Ford) for a still-untitled upcoming Star Wars film. The 26-year-old actor got his big break at the age of 14, when he was discovered by East Hampton’s Steven Spielberg at a bat mitzvah. Ehrenreich was in a short film made for his friend’s bat mitzvah, which Spielberg attended.

“[In the short] I ran around as a skinny little punk, trying on girls’ clothes and eating dirt,” Ehrenreich told Paste Magazine. Spielberg soon met with Ehrenreich and got him involved with an agent.

Ehrenreich appeared in guest spots on Supernatural and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation before starring in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, for which he gained considerable acclaim. Soon the actor had several big credits to his name, including Coppola’s experimental thriller Twixt, fantasy romance Beautiful Creatures, psychological thriller Stoker, Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, the Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Caesar and upcoming films including The Yellow Birds and and an untitled Warren Beatty project.

The Han Solo film has been in development as one of several standalone Star Wars films to be released in between major “numbered” Star Wars films. The first standalone film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, will be released later this year.