Mark Hamill has earned this moment in his career. He shot to fame in the 70s/80s for playing Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, only for people to struggle to see him as anyone else. A few decades passed (during which he worked on Broadway, had various bits of Film & TV and did lots of voice work), and Hamill was ready to come back to Luke, as a man who’s lived a full life, when J.J. Abrams and Disney revived the franchise with a vengeance. We can see him now really relishing his comeback, whether that’s in unexpected perks from the latest turns in Star Wars or in his whip-smart comments on twitter. And now he’s having more fun, getting to play father to comedian Bert Kreischer in The Machine, a movie based on Kreischer’s comedy that was released over Memorial Day weekend. Appearing on CBS News to promote The Machine, Hamill spoke with Tracy Smith about getting older and the shadow cast by Luke Skywalker:
Young at heart: “Well, I called myself an elderly recluse!” Hamill laughed. “It’s one of those things where when you say your age out loud – ‘cause I’m 71 – I go, Really?!? That’s older than I ever expected to be!” And how does he feel inside? “Much younger,” he said.
On auditioning for Star Wars: When he auditioned with future co-star Harrison Ford back in 1976, he says, he wasn’t sure whether or not to play George Lucas’ dialogue straight: “The problem was they didn’t give us a whole script. And yeah, I couldn’t figure it out, is this, like, a send-up of Flash Gordon or whatever? You couldn’t tell, ‘cause nobody talks like this! And I was asking Harrison, ‘cause he had been in ‘American Graffiti.’ I said, ‘You know George. Is this, like, a joke? Should we send it up? Make fun of it?’ ‘Whatever. Get it done.’ So, he was no help!”
‘The Luke Skywalker is not to be being the Mozart’: But by 1981 Hamill wanted to shake his Luke Skywalker image, and started doing Broadway shows, including the role of Mozart in “Amadeus.” He met with director Milos Forman, who was planning the film version: “I said, ‘You know, I’d really love a chance at playing Mozart.’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, no, no. The Luke Skywalker is not to be being the Mozart.’ So, I thought, well, at least he’s honest!”
On whether he’s accepted that he’ll always be remembered as Luke Skywalker: “Yeah. Well, I don’t care,” Hamill said. “I mean, the truth of the matter is, I never really expected to be remembered for anything. I just wanted to make a living doing what I liked. And I thought, ‘Well, it could be worse. I could be, like, known as being the best actor who ever played Adolf Hitler, you know?’ At least Luke is an admirable fellow!”
So the two main takeaways I get from reading this are ‘George Lucas’ writing was so bad that he couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a joke and Hamill’s way of dealing with forever being thought of as Luke Skywalker is ‘at least I’m not known for playing Hitler.’ Ok no No NO, I’m NOT really saying that myself and I wouldn’t dare suggest that’s what Hamill meant! Star Wars has a formidable following and I would never, ever want to besmirch it or them. All I am saying, is that the arrangement of words that fell out of his mouth may appear, to some others, as coming to those points.
Moving on, kind of, this interview did make me reconsider something from our Harrison Ford coverage last week. Hamill spoke to Esquire for their cover story on Ford, where he described Ford taking the lead on the original Star Wars publicity tour and said “I can’t tell you how many times in my life and my career when I’ve asked myself, WWHD?” It sounds like a life mantra, right? Well, reading this interview I started to wonder if maybe it’s not so inspirational. Maybe it’s literal? Cause Hamill literally asked Ford for advice on working with Lucas and the script (since, you know, Ford had already worked with Lucas) and Ford gave him NOTHING. So yeah, now I think it’s a literal, Sisyphean question. What would Harrison do? Cause Lord knows he won’t tell anyone when asked directly.
Photos credit: JPI Studios / Avalon, Backgrid and Getty
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