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Mark Hamill is opening up about how he nearly declined the role that he thinks helped relaunch his career.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter for an interview published on Thursday, Sept. 11, the 73-year-old actor admitted he was hesitant to accept a role in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
“I had real reservations about coming back. I thought it would be a mistake,” he shared, opening up about why he initially considered declining a role in the movie. “You can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice — they should really focus on a new generation of characters.”
“And I thought, ‘Well, Harrison [Ford] is not going to do it anyway,'” he continued. “You could see his irritation with constantly having to talk about Han Solo.”
However, much to his surprise, Ford agreed to reprise his role in the iconic franchise.
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“Once I saw in the press that he had accepted, I felt like I had been drafted — because if I’m the only one [of the original trio, along with the late Carrie Fisher] who says no, I’ll be the most hated man in nerd-dom.”
Now, he credits the movie for opening doors to more feature film roles and allowing him to make his way back into the spotlight.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Hamill spoke about the resurgence in his acting career after decades of voice and TV work.
“I certainly didn’t expect to have this sudden burst of life so late in the game,” Hamill told the outlet. “I should be spending time wandering the beaches with a metal detector. I can’t explain why, all of a sudden, I have five features this year.”
According to Hamill, he reached a point about five years ago when he thought, “It’s not easy getting older, and it’s even harder when you’re doing it on camera.”
“So I thought that I’ve had enough on-camera. I’m going to continue working but in voiceover only. Then Mike Flanagan and his producer, Trevor Macy, contacted me to do The Fall of the House of Usher,” he recalled, referring to the 2023 horror mini series.
“I was playing the family lawyer to a really evil family — a soulless, truly evil guy. And I loved it. It was minimalist,” he shared. “It was unlike anything I had ever done, and it sort of rekindled my satisfaction of doing things on camera. Then, with The Life of Chuck, I’ve seen it now three times. My wife has seen it like six times. She says, ‘It’s my favorite thing you’ve ever done.’ “
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Though Hamill has been candid about his love for Star Wars, the actor recently confessed that he hasn’t seen Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, his first film in the epic franchise, since its 1977 premiere.
“I haven’t seen it since it came out,” Hamill said during a June appearance on Today. “My sons watch it — especially Nathan is a huge aficionado. I saw it when it came out and I just don’t revisit it.”
“I’m not one of those people that goes, ‘Hey, let’s watch one of my movies!'” joked the actor, who famously played Jedi protagonist Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy and later returned for the sequel films and multiple TV series.
While Hamill is grateful to have played the iconic character, he previously admitted that he was ready to hang up his lightsaber for good.
“I just don’t see any reason to,” he said on CBS Sunday Morning when asked about another Skywalker reprisal. “Let me put it that way: I mean, they have so many stories to tell, they don’t need Luke anymore. I had my time, and that’s good. But that’s enough.”
