Speaking at a Cambridge Union stage interview, Mark Hamill discussed his original audition for Star Wars and how he was under the impression that he would just be playing the sidekick to Harrison Ford’s Han Solo.
It was a scene on the Millennium Falcon with Mark Hamill “bouncing off the walls”and seeking advice from Harrison Ford, who, in the character of Han Solo, joked “Kid, would you just do the lines so we can all get out of here?'”
Once getting a call from his agent that he had officially been cast, Mark Hamill asked who else would be in the movie, to which she replied Harrison Ford. Hamill then said “Oh yeah! I play his sidekick!” He explained, “Clearly, he was this leading man, and I was this annoying kid! And in that seven pages, I thought, well when he drops me off that’s the last time you’ll see me in the movie.”
After receiving the finished script, Hamill said “I get the script, and I open the page and it says, ‘The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga #1, The Star Wars.’ I went, wait a second, I don’t think Harrison’s playing Luke Starkiller, I think that’s me!”
SEE ALSO: Daisy Ridley says “Luke is so cool” in Star Wars: Episode VIII
Hamill will next be seen as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is set for release on December 15th 2017.
Originally published March 2, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
