Not just "a" role - he became "the" key role in the series, the evil spirit that moves the entire plot. Which was both absolute genius (turning a mistake into the first, menacing appearance of a key character) and absolute madness (how do you hand a key character of your expensive production to a random set-dresser with almost no acting career?!?). David Lynch in a nutshell.
Star Wars was definitely not a billion-dollar franchise at that time. Alec McGuinness famously negotiated to earn a percentage of gross revenue, because the salary offered was a pittance and he didn't expect any profits to ever be generated by such a bad production. And Ford had already worked as an actor in American Graffiti.
Not just "a" role - he became "the" key role in the series, the evil spirit that moves the entire plot. Which was both absolute genius (turning a mistake into the first, menacing appearance of a key character) and absolute madness (how do you hand a key character of your expensive production to a random set-dresser with almost no acting career?!?). David Lynch in a nutshell.