I’ve always had sympathy for Hamill because he’s forever known as Luke. Harrison Ford broke out of that trap, but I’ve only seen two appearances by Hamill when it didn’t have anything to do with Star Wars: his Seaquest cameo and Wing Commander.
He did the smart thing under the circumstances and took up voice acting. I’ve found his VA performances enjoyable; he seems to really like being in roles that don’t touch on Star Wars at all.
For the record, I never thought Luke Skywalker was particularly whiny until it was pointed out to me on the net. Now I always notice it. :mad:
Hey! Does anybody else remember the rumour of a disfguring motorbike accident which ruined his pretty boy scarless face and made the Ice Cave Monster scene neccessary in ESB (supposedly)?
Okay, apparently this somehow inspired the League of Hamill admirers (or at least the League of Hamill Non-Haters).
Now I really go out on a limb and say that I didn’t think his acting was that terrible, or at least any worse than Ford, Fischer, etc. I didn’t actually mean that people want to hang him over a bed of coals, more that he just seems to get so much less love/end up more maligned than the other actors in the Star Wars movies.
Not a motorcycle accident, a car accident. But it’s no rumour, it’s well documented.
What people rarely mention is that before the accident, Hamill had signed a contract to play David on the sitcom Eight Is Enough. (He appears in the pilot.) The studio cancelled his contract after the accident and recast the role before the series started filming.
If Mark Hamill wasn’t in that accident, he couldn’t have been in The Empire Strikes Back at all – unless the whole production was put on hold for him.
Didn’t the accident affect his ability to do proper facial expressions, at least to some extent? I thought that was at least one reason he went into voice acting. (He’s quite good at it, regardless!)
Granted, I was twelve years old and was in the beginning of an infatuation with Corvettes. But hey! That movie had the first titty I had ever seen in a movie, even if it was only in silhouette.
Did you ever see the short film George Lucas in Love ? Absolutely hysterical, and anyone who doesn’t laugh at the last scene doesn’t have a sense of humor.
I love Mark Hamill’s interviews! This one in particular really made me appreciate his fantastically wry sort of appreciation for the whole thing. He seems like he’d be a great guy to hang out with.
Put me in the camp of those somewhat bemused by the OP. I was never aware of any widespread hatred of Hamill per se. “Jedi” doesn’t get a lotta love because of Ewoks and other silly things.
I will say, as an adult going to see the SW re-releases, I was surpised at what a whiney little bitch Luke sometimes came across as. Completely floored me. “Buh I was gonna go into [town?] an’ pick up some power converrterrs! Waaaaaah!” (OK, I added the “wah” part, but it may as well have been there.) I’m thinkin’ “Hey, waitaminnit, Luke is a whiney little bitch! Is this the same movie I saw before?”
I had to think long and hard after that whether it was Hamill’s crap acting, or Lucas’ crap dialogue that was to blame. I came to the conclusion that it was a little of both. No hate. But not a lot of the worshipful admiration I had as a pre-ten-year-old either. As a youngun, I was totally all about Luke. He was The Man. Now I don’t think I could be around him for more than ten minutes before he started to get on my nerves. It takes a Harrison Ford to say “Laugh it up, fuzzball” with a straight face, and not have his acting career be disastrously marred for life. He was probably the only person in the whole cast who pull off such bullshit dialogue with anything resembling dignity and applomb. As the “other” hero of the piece, comparisons to Hamill are inevitable, and I’m afraid Mark’s a distant second. Not a bad guy. Not a completely hopeless actor. Just not all that.
BTW, if you guys haven’t seen Comic Book: The Movie, rush out and rent it now. I can’t say any more for fear of spoiling some of the best jokes. (Not at Hammill’s expense.)
It’s refreshing to read a typecast actor who’s not bitter. It’s also nice to learn that he’s well fixed financially (which probably helps with the bitterness) and I love this line:
Is the accident why Luke was attacked by the ice-cave creature at the beginning of Empire? As memory serves you never see his face until after he’s been attacked, which would explain any scars or facial alterations he had later in the movie.
I saw him do the Joker’s voice during a TV interview once. Before then, I didn’t know that Mark Hamil voiced the Joker. He said something like, “I love how unstable the Joker is. One moment, he can be like ‘La la-la la-la’ [in happy Joker voice] and then suddenly [switches to menacing Joker voice] he can become dark and brooding like this.” I was a huge fan of Batman: the Animated Series, and finding out that Luke Skywalker did the voice of my favorite bad guy was beyond cool