Mark Hamill Finally Revealed Why He Never Hosted 'SNL'
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If you're famous—and have a generally favorable public approval rating—you host Saturday Night Live! Betty White, Tom Hanks, Pedro Pascal. Them's the rules.
Really, the SNL machine is so strong (we're going on nearly 50 years now) that you'd be hard-pressed to think of an A-lister who hasn't taken the stage at 30 Rock. One of those celebrities? Mark Hamill, believe it or not. The Star Wars legend has made one appearance in the show, in 1997's "Shopping at Home Network: Mark Hamill for Sale," alongside Will Ferrell. In the skit, a group of Star Wars nerds auction off memorabilia from the galaxy far, far away, including Hamill. Now, in a new interview with Esquire, Hamill revealed why he never hosted SNL—and he thinks it's because he hosted a rival sketch show:
Well, let me tell you about SNL. Carrie [Fisher] did it back in the day with the original cast. I was over the moon because it was my favorite show, Carrie was great on it, and it made me really want to do it. But it's not one of those things where your agent calls and says, 'Hey, book my client.' They pretty much pick who they want and you go from there. I was asked to host Fridays, which was ABC's answer to SNL. And I think—I'm not sure, again, I'm just speculating—but I have a feeling that that might have been a factor in not being thought favorably of by Lorne Michaels.
To be clear, Hamill would still host SNL in a heartbeat. "It's one of those things where if they asked me," he continued, "you'd have to do it. You accept the challenge. But the fact that they don't ask me is fine, because I'm perfectly happy to be in the audience and not have the pressure of being on live television like that."
Lorne, can we make this happen? Please and thank you.
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