Mark Hamill doesn't mind if you don't like Star Wars. We're in the basement of Rag & Bone's SoHo shop in NYC celebrating the launch of the brand's new collection of gear inspired by the beloved film franchise, and Hamill is explaining the strange phenomenon of folks who feel compelled to confess their non-fandom. "That's fine!" he says laughing. "It doesn't offend me at all."
It makes sense, considering Hamill has inhabited dozens of roles over his career (including, notably, voicing the Joker for a generation of DC fans). But to many, he is Luke Skywalker. And after a surprise appearance at the end of The Force Awakens, he's stepping back into that role fully in The Last Jedi, the eighth installment of the franchise. In between sharing his thoughts on dogs ("I trust them more than humans") and He-Man ("the guy in a fur bikini") he filled me in on the early days of Star Wars, returning to the role, and what exactly it took to become the new, grizzled Luke.
Star Wars was a pay cut for most of the cast.
As George pointed out, Star Wars was the most expensive low-budget movie ever made. That's the exact quote. And what he meant by that was, aside from paying established actors like Peter Cushing or Alec Guinness, we're all unknowns. I said, "Hey! A thousand a week? I was making ten grand in TV!" They said, "Get over yourself. It's a movie. It's George Lucas." And I said, "Yeah, you're right. But still…" And we all got that.
The original Luke Skywalker pants were Levi's.
[For the pants,] they had cut off the pockets in the back with the Levi's logo. They bleached them out and shortened them and put a little pleat here [points to leg] so I could do the leggings up. But I only noticed it when I saw the actual button in the front; it still had "Levi Strauss" on it.
It's okay if you haven't seen Star Wars.
Not everybody likes Star Wars. It's not their thing. Not everybody likes bananas. It'd be a boring world if everybody liked the same thing. But what you get a lot of is, saying, "I have to admit, I haven't seen Star Wars." That's fine! It doesn't offend me at all.
The super-fans know more than he does.
That's the thing with Star Wars. There are people who enjoy it like a movie and then they get on with their lives. But the people we're talking about are who I call the "UPFs," the ultra-passionate fans, who love it beyond anything I could ever expect. And they know much more about it than I do. Because they've read all the ancillary material. They're talking about planets I've never heard of. I took a trivia quiz with that little boy on Ellen, and the question was, "What was the model number of the Millennium Falcon?" I said, "Are you kidding me?" It's not in the movie! How would anybody know this? So he slaughtered me.
Returning to Star Wars was "a little intimidating."
I never expected to come back. They did 7, 8, and 9, and we weren't scheduled, that I know of, to be a part of it. And I really love to be in the audience. Loved the prequels, was fascinated with what he did, was really proud of him that he didn't just make carbon copies of the middle ones. They had their own identity and their own sort of feel to them, so it was fun to be in the audience. So I was looking forward to the same thing. There were the originals, the prequels, and now what I call the new generation. And I said, "Great, I can't wait to see it." But being back in it—it's a little intimidating to tell the truth.
And even a Jedi Master needs hair extensions.
I had long hair but I had a piece that attached. I said, "Look, winds are always dodgy." Because you can see the netting [of a hair extension]. And the description in 7 is, "He turns, removes the hood, with flowing white hair and a beard. It is Luke Skywalker." I said, "Wait a minute. If this is chronologically after Return of the Jedi, I'm only in my early 50s! What's this description like Methuselah?"
I don't color my hair, but all the gray comes out in my beard. So I said, "Let me grow a beard. If you're happy that the gray sells it enough…" And once I grew it out, JJ said fine. But my hair, I grew it as long as I could and then it was supplemented. I feel like I'm giving away all the secrets. I should lie and say I grew it.
