Harrison Ford Once Tried to Get 'Star Wars' Co-Star Tim Rose Fired

Tim Rose worked as an actor and puppeteer on many of the Star Wars films, including Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, where he played the Admiral Ackbar and Jabba the Hutt's pet, Salacious Crumb.

In an interview with YouTuber Jamie Stangroom, Rose remembered an awkward encounter with Harrison Ford, resulting in the acclaimed actor demanding that Rose be fired, as reported by ComicBook.com.

The encounter apparently occurred during filming for the Return of the Jedi scene in which Leia frees Han Solo from carbonite in Jabba the Hutt's palace. Rose said that he and the other costumed characters had been on set for four hours before the first take. After Leia releases Han in the scene, she kisses him and the curtains unveil to reveal Jabba and his entourage, some of whom shout again and again: "We saw you kissing!"

Ford was apparently not happy with this. Rose recalled, "Harrison went over to the director and said, 'Are these puppet characters going to laugh over my line? Because I don't want to have to come back and do ADR.'"

The director, Richard Marquand, told the actors to pantomime their cheers instead. After, Marquand sat next to the character Salacious Crumb and asked what he thought of it. Rose, playing Salacious Crumb, said: "Eh, this Harrison guy... is he gonna talk over our laugh? 'cause it's really putting me off."

Rose didn't know that his microphone was still live, and while the rest of the cast found it funny, Ford didn't--and demanded that whoever said that be fired. Luckily for Rose, he was only ever on set in costume and they told Ford he had been fired, resulting in Rose having to go around calling himself "the new guy."

But the puppeteer ultimately wanted to be sure fans knew Ford was a good guy, despite his story painting him in a poor light. “I'm at great pains to say Harrison Ford is a great guy, I just happened to misread the sense of humor and do the wrong thing at the wrong time," Rose clarified.