“Tell them I told you everything you needed to know, and that you can’t tell anyone.”

That was Harrison Ford’s advice to Alden Ehrenreich, the man who would be Han, when they sat down for lunch in January of last year shortly before production began on Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Ehrenreich, the 28-year-old actor best known for the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar!, dutifully remained tightlipped about the Star Wars veteran’s other guidance. There is honor among thieves. “I gotta stick to my orders from the man himself,” Ehrenreich says.

But EW uncovered more intel about Ford’s involvement from other Star Wars sources who revealed that although the original Han kept a respectful distance, he did provide some vital insights into the character he has lived with, sometimes uncomfortably, for four decades.

Lucasfilm president and Solo producer Kathleen Kennedy, who has known Ford since their Raiders of the Lost Ark days, said she called the actor after his lunch with Ehrenreich.

“It was perfect, classic Harrison,” Kennedy says, breaking into his signature low-key grumble. “‘Good kid, good kid. Really good kid.’”

She had also sent Ford the script, which she said he read and gave a thumbs-up. “I think being who is Harrison is, there is no way he would step into the middle of this and start trying to dictate,” Kennedy says.

But Ford is a living repository of knowledge about Han’s origins. He was the one George Lucas talked to about the character’s history and motivations, way back when they brought him to life in the 1977 original.

“What [Ford] did so beautifully for Alden was he talked a lot about what he remembered when he first read Star Wars, and what George had done with Han. Who the character was and the conversations he had for so many years with George about how that character developed,” Kennedy says. “He gave Alden that kind of insight which was invaluable. There were several times in the course of making the movie where Alden would actually recount some of the things that Harrison had pointed out. I think that was really, really helpful to him.”