Originally published April 5, 2016. Updated January 23, 2020.
After watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you were probably left wondering why Lucasfilm bothered to bring Mark Hamill in for the cast table read when his character Luke Skywalker had no lines in the movie. Well, as you’d expect with a J.J. Abrams movie, it was partly to retain the movie’s secrets, but the director has also revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Hamill had another important role to play:
“It was partly trickery,” states Abrams. “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. “It wouldn’t have been right notto have him there. But it also wouldn’t have been right to have him there and not participate.”
Abrams went on to reveal that Hamill agreed to read out the stage directions from the script, adding that: “t is a pretty herculean task, to ask an actor to read a hundred and twenty some pages aloud over the course of two plus hours. I almost felt guilty, and yet it also felt so right and I hoped that he would say yes. He immediately said, ‘Of course.’ It was a way of having [him] be part of every scene, every moment, not just spiritually or thematically or narratively, but actually. Having his voice in it made the read through a better experience for everyone.”
SEE ALSO: Order Star Wars: The Force Awakens via Amazon UK or Amazon US
Star Wars: The Force Awakens sees J.J. Abrams directing returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), in addition to Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year), Andy Serkis (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Ken Leung (Lost), Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Jessica Henwick (Spirit Warriors), Christina Chong (24: Live Another Day), Simon Pegg (Star Trek) and newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen.
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