New Video Shows Mark Hamill Finally Speaking for the Force
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke Skywalker is a man of few words. Very few.
As most movie fans know by now— although, if you haven’t seen The Force Awakens, then spoiler alert — Mark Hamill’s Luke appears in the film but does not have any lines, a fact that the actor pokes fun at in a new Star Wars: Force for Change video.
Related: Watch Harrison Ford Surprise Some Rabid ‘Star Wars’ Fans
In the clip, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy asks Hamill to explain the charity fundraising efforts the Star Wars community has planned for 2016. Hamill’s response: “Oh, I’m sorry. I have dialogue? I’m used to just staring intensely.”
In addition to providing fodder for charity-film-clip comedy, Hamill’s lack of a speaking part also raised questions in recent months about what, exactly, he was doing at the table read for The Force Awakens. Hamill was among the cast members pictured in that famous photo that circulated as production on the film began, even though, as we now know, Hamill would not have had anything to read at the table.
The first photo from the table read (Lucasfilm)
Director J.J. Abrams finally explains all that in a new Entertainment Weekly piece. “It was partly trickery,” he says. “We knew, obviously, that he didn’t speak in the film. And because we knew we were going to take pictures, and people knew he was in the movie, we needed to have him there.”
But Hamill actually was given something to do: He was given the job of reading all the stage directions, making Luke a pseudo-narrator for the story during the table read. Which is pretty cool, even though it meant Hamill had to travel all the way to London to read words he would never get to say onscreen.
That wasn’t the only time a trip to Lucasfilm in London has led to a (minor) indignity for Hamill. As he tweeted recently, during another visit to the studio’s UK office, he was given a name tag that identified him as “Mark Hamilton.”
How famous am I? Actual Security Pass I got 4 Disney London Office visit. That’s MISTER Hamilton to you! #AndYouAre? pic.twitter.com/zdEZ24kcpw
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) April 3, 2016
The good news is that “Mr. Hamilton” has a sense of humor about all of this, as displayed in that tweet and the Force for Change video. Presumably he’ll have the last laugh when he gets to actually talk (we hope?) in Episode VIII.
Watch an exclusive clip from the ‘Force Awakens’ Blu-ray:
