Mark Hamill is notable not just for being Luke Skywalker and the Joker, but for being a true-blue nerd in his own right. This is the guy who used some of his Star Wars money to donate a copy of Action Comics #1 to the Smithsonian, after all. And, thus, his AMA was great: Here are a few of the best tidbits
He’s adorably terrible at video games.
The only part that seems [un]true is the boys asking me for help with Zelda, as I was terrible at Zelda. I was only good at games like “Little Mermaid” and my kids would make fun of me that it was a game designed for six year old girls.
By the way, this was Hamill confirming an anonymous anecdote about a plumber. He actually does this throughout the AMA; there’s one guy who runs a story his mother told him by Hamill, and he tries to confirm it to the best of his ability.
Hamill wanted Luke to be an even bigger dork in A New Hope.
When you’re first introduced to [Luke] he’s on the farm and he sees the Robots, when R2 and C3PO eject he races to the club, and you see what his life is like on Tataouine. This beautiful actress calls him wormy. I loved it bc you saw that he wasn’t well liked by his peers, and he bumps into Garrick Hagon, and Luke is really excited bc he has joined the empire, and Luke is so anxious to get off the farm and find his lot in life.
Luke nearly sang in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
I initially said that I didn’t want to do it, but George said it would help keep Star Wars in the consciousness and I wanted to be a team player so I did it. And I also said that I didn’t think Luke should sing, so they cut that number.
Hamill finds Chewbacca inherently hilarious
They have an 8 ft furry dog driving a spaceship, he’s naked except headphones, that’s funny.
He thought he was so typecast as Luke they’d never let him play the Joker.
And I felt cocky when I left and thought “That’s the best Joker they are every going to hear – too bad they can’t hire me.” And then two weeks later when they called and said I got the job I immediately lost my confidence.
He has a thing for crawling inside Star Wars beasties.
You know, warm and cozy. I also got inside a Bantha, those creatures that were outside the cantina. The inside of it was pasted over with newspapers and glue to give it substance, I thought, ‘This is really odd.’ I also got inside of Jabba, which was like a sauna bath, because it’s like a big rubber enclosure. All the puppeteers had gone to lunch and I wondered, ‘I wonder what it’s like in there.’
There’s a lot more in the full AMA; Hamill took a lot of time to answer questions, and the thread’s chock-full of tidbits, albeit Hamill doesn’t let anything slip about Episode VII. Consider it good lunch reading!