MARK HAMILL IS UP FOR ANYTHING
The man who’s been kidnapped in his new film, The Machine, starred on Broadway, channeled a vampire, voiced the Joker and—oh yeah—played that Skywalker guy, is joyfully open to whatever comes next.
Before Mark Hamill even starts to promote his new movie—let alone talk about you-know-what—he must address some important business. Well, not really business. More like a series of fun facts. First he introduces his wife, Marilou, and shares that the secret to their 45-year marriage is compromise. The Hamills, who have three kids, would like to add that they each grew up reading Parade in the Sunday newspaper. Next, he dotes on the dogs: Trixie is an attention-loving rescue mix; Millie, he explains, has her own Instagram account with more than 27,000 followers. And did you know that the Oakland, California, native and L.A. resident used to live near Central Park in New York City for 20-some years in the ‘80s and ‘90s?
“I did a half-dozen Broadway shows,” he says. “That was a revelation to me. We came back to California and people thought I had retired!”
If it’s not obvious from that windup, Hamill, 71, is a talker and a doer—so giving up his storied acting career was not and is not an option. In fact, he’s still capable of surprising his fans with a raucous comedic performance.
In The Machine (in theaters May 26), he portrays the estranged dad of a popular stand-up comic (Bert Kreischer, playing a loose version of himself ). Nicknamed “The Machine” for his drinking prowess, Bert is best known for spinning an onstage anecdote about his time as a college foreign exchange student in Russia when he messed with the mob on a train. But the bad guys seek revenge in the present day, and bickering father and son are forced to go overseas to right the wrongs. That’s when the real chaos—drugs! Drinking! Bullet sprays! More drugs!—begins. “It turns into this surreal Russian spy fever dream and the events pile up, and it gets crazier and crazier until it explodes,” Hamill says. (Kreischer’s Russian ‘80s-set backstory, which is reenacted onscreen, is based on fact and has amassed more than 80 million Youtube views; everything else is fictional.)
“I had never read anything like that script and that’s very rare for me,” Hamill says. “It’s like every movie can be compared to something else. But this story was so original and bonkers. I mean, I love that Bert tells this story in this routine and has his audiences in the palm of his hand—and that’s just the starting point!”
The Machine marks Hamill’s first live-action film since he reprised his most iconic character, Jedi hero Luke Skywalker, in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. (He’s also since popped up as a younger version of Luke in the Disney+ TV series The Mandalorian.) And while he’s happy to oblige a few Star Wars-related questions—he does a killer vocal impression of the famous Death Star conference room scene from the original 1977 movie—the actor would prefer to talk about the big picture as opposed to, well, one of the biggest pictures ever. As Hamill puts it, “People say to me, ‘Do you worry that you’ll only be remembered for one part?’ Well, first of all, I never expected to be remembered for anything.”
On a Thursday afternoon in early April, the actor detailed his long and unexpected journey for Parade.
How’d you like playing a wild and combative father?
Well, at the heart of the movie, this is a relationship film between a father and son. I don’t understand Bert’s character and disapprove of his lifestyle. And yet I love that the characters come together and the comedy comes into place. I knew it was a high-risk concept and if it misfired, it could have been a disaster. But there’s a big, outrageous payoff. You know, this movie really is escapism. That’s what we all need right now.
Your costar, Bert, has quite a viral following. Did you develop a familial bond with him?
I had never heard of him, so I asked my kids. And they were like, “Oh my God! We hear him all the time!” Now I’ve gotten to know him and have developed a real fondness for him. Bert’s got an authentic, larger-than-life personality and what you see is what you get. But at the first Zoom meeting, I couldn’t understand why he would perform with his shirt off. I said things like, “Well, Jack Benny never took his shirt off and he was funny. Buddy Hackett never took his shirt off and he was funny.” So, in a way, I was already playing into my character from the beginning.
How was your relationship with your own dad? Was he at all like the one in The Machine?
Yeah, my dad [William, a U.S. Navy captain], was like him to a certain extent. I mean, he never really approved because I loved puppets and magic and comic books—all the things that he didn’t understand. At the dinner table, I’d say, “Hey, listen, everybody, I have a really good Elmer Fudd impression” and do it. My father would say, “That’s all well and good, Mark, but being able to impersonate Elmer Fudd is not going to get you anywhere in life.” I think he wanted me to follow in his footsteps.
What about the rest of your family?
You come from a big one. My mom [Virginia] was very supportive. I have four sisters and two brothers and they were always a captive audience for my magic shows. I was the only one who went into show business. One of my brothers is a brilliant computer expert. Another brother always had a propensity for medicine. But you’ve got to follow your dreams.