Hamill says he’d like to play Lucas in a movie
Producer Marshall and others share marathon memories at ‘Boston’ premiere
LOS ANGELES, April 17, (Agencies): He’s played Luke Skywalker and the Joker, but Mark Hamill has one role he’d like to add to his resume: That of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.
The actor said Sunday that he would love to play Lucas in a movie about his life when a fan at the Star Wars Celebration event in Orlando, Florida, asked him what role he’d like to play.
Hamill’s voice was in rough shape after four days at the fan event but he still managed to affect a solid impression of his former boss.
During the one-man panel Hamill also recounted stories about Harrison Ford advising him not to ask permission ad-lib during filming and how he and the late Carrie Fisher once sneaked into a theater to see the 1977 “Star Wars” trailer.
The actor, who’s played Luke Skywalker since 1977’s “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope”, began by describing the look he usually gets when a child meets him for the first time: “‘Oh my god, what happened to this guy? He really let himself go.’” “You look great”, a voice called out from the audience. During the panel, Hamill made a few announcements. For one, his show “Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest” will return for a second season, and will expand to eight 22-minute episodes. The actor also explained how he landed a cameo in Netflix’s recently-released “Mystery Science Theater 3000” reboot — he was approached after donating to the crowdfunding campaign to bring the cult classic back.
With a laryngitis-induced rasp, Hamill told the audience he would have loved to do his Joker, but couldn’t muster more than two chuckles. He did, though, speak to some of his other voice acting.
“On the ‘Simpsons’ I got very self-conscious”, he said, explaining that he had an identity crisis when deciding how to play himself. “About a week before I was going in to do it, I thought, ‘How do I sound?’”
Hamill also said that at least one person isn’t impressed with his Harrison Ford impression.
“I’m not sure how fond Harrison is of my impression”, Hamill said. “One time he said to me, ‘I don’t sound anything like that.’”
But Hamill’s star anecdote was one he began to share during his tribute to Carrie Fisher (before he got sidetracked talking about how she used to dress him up in her clothes and parade him around the lot). Hamill spoke of a time when he and Fisher were together in Westwood when the first trailer for “Star Wars” was playing in theaters. Fisher told Hamill that she didn’t want to watch a movie, but wanted to see the trailer.
“’You’re going to ask the manager to let us in to see just the trailer,’” Hamill recalled her telling him. And so he did.
“Can we speak to the manager?” he remembered asking the woman at the box office window. “We’re two of the actors in the movie you’re showing the trailer for.”
The past and present collided on Saturday night at the world premiere of “Boston: The Documentary” for executive producer Frank Marshall, 37 years after he ran the Boston Marathon.
The premiere at Boston’s Boch Center Wang Theater took place four years after the Boston Marathon bombing killed three and injured several hundred. The 121st running of the marathon, the world’s oldest, takes place on Monday.
Marshall, who’s been nominated for five best picture Oscars (“Raiders of the Ark”, “The Color Purple”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Seabiscuit”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), said the 1980 race is still clear in his mind.
“I remember the race vividly, much more than the other 14 marathons I ran”, he mused. “It was warm like it will be Monday and I had to run a marathon in under two hours and 50 minutes to qualify. For us amateurs, Boston is the Olympics and hub.”
Marshall said he was particularly enthused that the film will get a one-night release on April 19 in more than 500 theaters via Fathom Events.