71-Year-Old Mark Hamill Interviewed, Remembers 1977 ‘Star Wars’ Audition

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: CBS News interviewed 71-year-old Mark Hamill, who remembers that in his first audition for Star Wars, they didn’t give him the whole script. So “I couldn’t figure out, is this like a send-up of Flash Gordon or whatever? You couldn’t tell. Because nobody talks like this!”

Hamill also does impressions of the other actors he worked with. “I was asking Harrison, because he had been in American Graffiti. I said, ‘You know George. Is this like a joke, or — should we send it up, make fun of it?'” And then he mimics Harrison Ford as saying “Yeah, Whatever. Get it done.” (“So he was no help.”) Later Hamill also describes meeting Alec Guinness, who eventually had to remind Hamill to stop calling him “Sir Alec.” (“I want to be known by my name, not my accolade…”)

And after playing Mozart in the Broadway production of Amadeus, Hamill remembers the reaction when he’d suggested appearing in the movie adaptation. Director Milos Forman said, “Oh ho ho ho. No, no, no. The Luke Skywalker is not to be being the Mozart.” (Hamill’s reaction? “At least he’s honest.”)

There’s a clip of Hamill doing voice-over work for the animated Batman series, and (about three minutes in) a quick clip from Mark Hamill’s 1976 screen test with Harrison Ford. There’s even a photo of Hamill’s appearance in a 1971 episode of The Partridge Family. At the end of the interview, Hamill doesn’t say whether or not he’ll ever reappear in the role of Luke Skywalker again. “You never say never. I just don’t see any reason to, let me put it that way. They have so many stories to tell, they don’t need Luke any more.”

But the interviewer points out that “if you find yourself in Ukraine during an air strike, you might hear Luke Skywalker’s voice talking you down” — since he also provides the voice for a warning app linked to Ukraine’s air defense system.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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