A little over two weeks ago I sat down in a conference room at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to speak with the one and only Mark Hamill. The subject was Rian Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (before anyone had seen the movie) where Hamill reprises his role as the iconic Luke Skywalker. The time frame was 10 minutes. As you’ll notice from the transcript below I got in just three questions.
I’m not complaining.
Hamill had been speaking all day long about “Last Jedi,” a difficult prospect for all the talent on hand that day since they had to avoid all spoilers, and he clearly could have gone at least another three hours if Disney’s publicists had allowed him. Instead, he told stories, shared his wonderfully blunt opinions and inspired.
Learn the origins of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s” adorable Porgs
When I arrived I was greeted by two of Hamill’s friendly dogs on hand. One we’re assuming was the infamous Millie Grace.
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The Playlist: I probably smell like cats, so they probably raced to me to smell them.
Mark Hamill: Well, no, they’re overly protective and they make a lot of noise, but they don’t bite.
All right, easiest question for you to start off with. Pretty sure it’s gonna be a yes or no answer: Will you play Luke Skywalker again?
Any time they ask.
That actually could be an answer.
It is an answer. I mean, they’re doing a series of short animated films. [He looks to someone sitting behind me.] Are we allowed to talk about that? They’ve been on.
Mysterious person: You mean, “The Forces of Destiny”?
We can talk about that?
Mysterious person: Yeah. “The Forces of Destiny”, we love them.
Well, they asked me to do one. I said, “When does it take place?” They said, “It’s ‘Empire Strikes Back’ era”, and I thought, “Are you gonna have to speed up my voice so I can sound youthful again?” They said, “Well, we’ll see. Let’s see how you do.” And I came in and I just pitched myself up a little higher, got more energetic again, “Golly!”
You know, Frank Welker has been doing Freddy on “Scooby Doo” since 1969. He’s one of the most gifted actors I’ve ever seen. And with animation, they cast with their ears, not their eyes so, there’s an example of a time I’ve played Luke again. I just can’t quit him. It’s like Joker. When the animated series was over I said, “That’s great. I’ll never be able to have that experience again.” All these years went by, Kevin Michael Richardson played it on “The Batman”, Jeff Bennett played it on “Brave and The Bold”. But when they got to the video games they said, we’re getting the original gang back together again. Kevin, and you, and Andrea Romano. And all the writers, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, never thought we’d be able to come back to that.
That keeps happening in my career. You know I did Trickster when Chelsea [Hamill] was a little girl and then the new series comes on and they say,”Do you want to come back and do that again?” I said, “As Trickster?” Because I thought John Wesley Shipp and I are contemporaries. He’s in prison for falsely being accused of killing his wife, at least in the story line then, so I figured I’d be playing the warden, or another cell mate or something. They said, “No. We want you to play the Trickster.” I said, “Guys. It’s age inappropriate. I was pushing it wearing that one piece leotard then, much less now.”
But again, they very cleverly sort of revamped it and made him more of a Hannibal Lecter-y type lunatic. But I love these things coming back. “Wing Commander” is coming back. I did “Squadron 42.” Look the cast. Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jack Houston, Andy Serkis. It’s the next generation of video game, movie type, motion capture now. But it’s Chris Roberts and I. I haven’t worked with him since “Wing Commander” so everything old is new again, and I’m just loving every minute of it.