Mark Hamill in Conversation with Frank Oz

Wow Wow we better be good [Laughter] Wow are there people up there too can't see it this is great your night I can't believe it how's the house alright that's fine okay so I'm doing first a little intro okay I want you sitting there so you can embarrassed you can be embarrassed okay you were born in my hometown Oakland I was yeah one of seven children and as a child you always loved TV and movies and cartoons and you put on show oh that's so right yeah and and doing voices obviously I mean now hundreds of voices right and I don't have to tell people I can't go through the whole list you know and he's also what I want you to also it's also a writer and a producer and a video everything a video everything and of course an actor nomina well first of all I look thanh line I've known mark for so many years but I didn't this didn't know his whole list of things he did so I went online IMDB me yeah and I looked I looked and I looked that I had to break for lunch he has done so much work it's incredible and what that proves is this man knows his craft so well that he can then be free so that's extraordinary okay you've even a BAFTA award you don't see this as ever they okay I am going to now ask questions that you guys won't ask you will have a chance but since you're not going to ask these questions I am and then I'll get into Star Wars okay [Applause] voice artists do you remember the first voice you did that you got paid yes it was a small part in Ralph Bakshi's wizards a feature film I played Shawn king of the fairies and Roth was quite a character you know he sounded a lot like he did he directed Fritz the Cat and he voiced the heard about it he he he voiced the policeman and he through it took like this he did you call that an efference fairy you know I was like 18 and terrified and Mazhar challenged you in ways that you don't expect you know they play mind games until you know they have you broken down I was I was shaking I remember when I went to lunch I thought I could I'm glad I have a small part because if I had the lead I I don't think I could withstand his his way of working with others well that was a good example you know Wow saying that you know because I thought well he cast me if I must sound fairy enough to get the part but then you know the all directors are different you know it's ironic because you Here I am late in my career working with Rian Johnson who I've never heard raises voice I never heard him curse he's like a he's just exuberant onset he giggles like a little kid I mean I could imagine him 25 years ago playing with the action figures on his little toy Star Wars set and then now he's working with us and another thing he never would embarrass someone or humiliate them in front of everyone else and I've seen directors fire people from across the soundstage hey buddy out and you know gee couldn't he just pull them aside and say that so you know when you work with as many directors as I have you know you really appreciate that relationship because they're your father well you know you're the your are seeing eye dogs because we want to fulfill your vision the best we can and we can't always you know it's just a crucial thing you've got to have a good relationship with your director yeah some directors I don't know what they're doing well I I mean I mean a sense of being cruel to somebody I don't get I don't get that either but and you know I did animation voice-over early on in my career and then like I did the the they did an I Dream of Jeannie cartoon later when I worked with Larry Hagman I said hey Larry I'm playing the teenage you in cartoons he looked so bewildered and so I mean I love that I and it was it was an overlap I got to work with Dodds Butler and John Stevenson and Don Messick you know all of these people that I knew from the Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound the whole hanna-barbera scene and that was old school and I and I was it was thrilled I was thrilled because I was working with all these people I idolized because I you know the credits went by so fast when I would go into record stores I'd go to the children's section and see the Rocky and Bullwinkle album June Foray and you know or the hanna-barbera people so I knew their names then this was like early 70s I was 19 when I did Jeannie I didn't work till 92 there was like years where it just never occurred to me and then I did when I did Batman that was the first animated show I'd done in let's see from from about seventy two three four till 92 I don't know why because I loved it I took to it like a duck to water because what I love about animation is they cast with their ears not their eyes so you're gonna get parts that you would never be right for if you're on camera because you're you're do this you're too that you're this or your eye colors wrong whatever you know because people will say well you know can you add like 20 pounds to that voice so you just sound a lot heavier you know you you just you just do it and I'm in awe voiceover actors they're so talented it seems to me that you know it's unfair that they call them voice-over actors because it marginalizes them in a way they don't deserve first and foremost they are incredibly good actors as good as anyone I've worked with on stage television screen and they're so versatile I mean they come out of improv out of stand-up comedy and out of you know at just acting I thought it was funny one time because when you first go to voiceover actor acting if you're famous they think you're slumming it you know they're you're not really committed to and once they realize that you know you're on time you don't have an entourage you want to learn and work with the other actors they sort of said you know you're not like most face actors I said what did you say and it turns out they call on camera people face actors so they have their revenge in a way but it's it's the same with you I'm sure you get this all the time you know because you with your puppetry they think you just do the voice or that you're not a legitimate actor when someone that sees it from my end knows how not only are you great actors you put every ounce of your body into the physicality of the puppet and I I was mad for puppets when I was a kid I loved hand puppets but I really wanted a marionette they were too expensive I'd make them in arts and crafts I'd make them out of socks so when the Muppets came along this was revolutionary to me I mean you'd I knew they weren't hand puppets they weren't marionettes they were sort and you thought you had a real hand going on hands are so expressed expressive I was so mad for the Muppets that I remember if you were on well it wasn't problem if you were on Mike Douglas Hollywood Palace was on Saturday so that was a wild night but Edie Sullivan was a school night and if the Muppets were on if I had my teeth brush my homework done I was in my pajamas I get to stay up that extra half-hour because it was the Muppets Wow you and Don Rickles and who else well the Beatles and all those kind of people being one of seven children my father was in the Navy so he's a very strict disciplinarian and I always thought why are bed times so enforced and then I thought I had three children it totally you know you totally understand why you want to have a little peace and quiet and get-get us monsters off to bed as soon as possible I have one more question about as I know these guys want to get into Star Wars but one more question about voices what is something about being a voice artist that most people don't know well a lot of people say hey listen this is pretty good I do whom we didn't and you go yeah that's good and I have people come up to me the dude spot on Joker I'm really surprised but they tend to think oh you do funny voices that they they don't people don't come up to me and say oh I could be on Broadway or I could be in the movies or whatever it's more accessible I think to people since they do a good impression of X Y or Z they say so how could I get into voiceover and I you know I hate to tell people this because I go and talk at schools and so forth and universities they ask me my goal is to talk you out of show business number one I want to eliminate the competition if you're too good that's less chance that I'll get the job but seriously I say if there's anything else that you like even remotely do that because you are in for a lifetime of rejection and heartbreak and unemployment I mean it all looks so glamorous and the thing is when I tell people this if if they don't listen to what I say they're probably more likely to succeed because I heard the same thing from my parents honey you've got to have something to fall back on so when I went to college I was taking courses so that I could get my teaching degree but I didn't listen to reason you know they you know if I sometimes think that tenacity is almost important or maybe more important than Talent hmm I worked with a girl in college Kathy Lightstone she was like Meryl Streep good she could do everything comedy drama you know absence aches peers she was just an incredible actress but she didn't have the chemistry she tried it for two or three years she's got an agent and I'm telling you it's like when you play roulette you've got to spin the wheel a thousand times before it comes up your number and if you you know and I I didn't care I mean I'd get a couple of jobs in television then I'd need to pay the rent okay okay now I was a copy boy at ap or I worked at jack-in-the-box or I you know I got to the point where the staff at my at City College knew I was because I'd have to I don't recommend this to anyone but I even have a car I would hitchhike to school and to jack-in-the-box and it's terrible I mean I could have been abducted or I don't know I mean it's terrible I mean my parents would warn me don't go go to Hollywood it's filled with you know degenerate sand drug dealers and minoo but it just it didn't occur to me to do anything else I've said before I mean I got the bug really early because I saw a Clarence Nash on a Disney TV show doing Donald Duck I must have been four or five and the light bulb went off on my head I was already mad for the the comic strips that were delivered to my door every day I love the ones I couldn't read the ones that were silent little King and Henry and so forth I probably learned to read from peanuts and so forth and and comic books and cartoons and TV my parents were really worried about me they thought yeah and but anyway I'm watching and all of a sudden I see this man in a suit in front of a microphone doing Donald Duck and this light bulb went on somebody gets up in the morning as breakfast kisses his wife goodbye drives in the car and does Donald Duck and gets paid for it I want that job I did a terrible Donald Duck but then I really started keying in on on the voices in cartoons so I mean a lot of people say oh you fell back on cartoons because you couldn't get movies no I aspired to do animation all my life it was just a thrill to do it there are other pivotal moments when I saw King Kong and I must have been seven and it was on the million dollar movie when we were living in New York so it was on every day for five days in a row at four o'clock and I saw it Monday at four o'clock I was traumatized I mean it was so tragic to me what happened to that poor ape and I watched the next day hoping somehow it would change and he wouldn't get abducted he'd get away from them and everything you know and my mom you know and again I was just beside myself it was so tragic to me and of course I loved the dinosaurs and you know my my my mom said honey why do you keep because I was gonna I brought my buddies over on Wednesday I see this movie it's the best thing I've ever seen in my life she's why do you keep doing this to yourself because I was traumatized on Wednesday on Thursday on Friday I mean it to me I don't know maybe for women it's gone with the wind for young boys it's King Kong it's a heartbreaker and I thought I don't know how they made these dinosaurs come to life but again somebody is going to work and that's their job to make dinosaurs come to life now I didn't know how they did it but I thought and the Disney was largely responsible cuz they pull back the curtain and show you the making of Darby O'Gill on the little people the making of babes in toyland so I'm going in going look there's carpenters who build sets there's a you know there's painters and there's the camera crew I'm not a bad cook maybe I could cater films I didn't have to be in the show I wanted to be near the show and again I kept it a secret because I thought why give my brother and sisters fodder you know cuz they'd say here comes mr. movie star you know I didn't want to do that but in the back of my mind I said I that's what what that's what I have to do and I didn't necessarily think it would be performing because when I was auditioning for a play in school I would be great I would be great if I got it but if I didn't get it I would work on the props or backstage I made posters I sold tickets I mean to me doctor the point by the time I was in junior high school or high school classes were just something that was getting in the way of my professional job which is going to rehearsal and doing a play I it's it's sometimes it's good to be delusional because you create your own reality and you live in that little happy bubble live in your own little happy bubble and that's what I did so and I'm the first time my father we were living in my dad as Frank said was in the Navy and we moved all the time so I was perpetually the new kid maybe that sort of helped me develop this chameleon-like ability to fit in you know with whatever cuz what school in San Diego is really strange in Pennsylvania or New York just yeah San Jose so I was wanting to always fit in and then we were living on the East Coast and my father brought me to New York on a business trip and he would go to work and he'd get me tickets from the Navy discount tickets and I go as a single and I saw The Odd Couple and I saw all these place to me this was the first confirmation see that they were real people on the stage I didn't know where they made movies vaguely Hollywood but they were just fantasy in a way here these were real people I remember I go by the stage door I wouldn't approach them and ask for their autographs but I wanted to see Oscar and Felix and the poker players come out of the stage door just to reaffirm this is a job these people go to work and they make these people laugh so hard myself included I didn't think I like musicals because I would see them on TV I love you so it was just not it's just not for me you know I thought I don't like musicals but I'd seen all these straight plays I saw the mad show off-broadway and like I say The Odd Couple and so forth Murat sod which really freaked me out because the actors were so good I thought they were really insane they were drooling and I didn't know what it was it just said the Royal Shakespeare Company was something that I knew that I should see that traumatized me too but then then there was a time where that I run out of straight plays and I saw it's a musical comedy Sweet Charity and I misread the description I thought it said the misadventures of a female taxi driver it's a taxi dancer it wouldn't matter you know at 14 I didn't know what a taxi dancer was but I thought it's a musical so I won't like the singing but it says book by Neil Simon and I'd seen The Odd Couple I said I should see these are better at least it's funny and it sounded like a goofy concept you know a female taxi driver that could be funny so I went and saw it and again I was totally unprepared the the choreography in the film is a recreation because Fosse did both productions and it was a stunner I was up in the balcony you know I always got the cheapest seats and I never seen anything like it it was you know I thought no I mean because my parents wouldn't let me go see anything that even remotely came close to being adult themed and my father had no idea what this was about and I was sort of working it out myself but it was just sexy it was funny I'd never seen people move that way I was bowled over and that sort of opened up a whole new world to me word and then I was more accepting and I saw Fiddler on the Roof it wasn't Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy this told a story you know steeped in in Jewish history I mean cabaret again 1931 Nazi Germany the that such ambitious themes I thought I was really holding myself back you know and and since I've become a fan of Damn Yankees and How to Succeed in Business and you know theatres like I said was it was a major catalyst in me realizing that at the very worst even though I didn't know anybody in Hollywood and I read books I read books if I I'd get obsessed with like the Marx Brothers and then I'd read every book I could about the Marx Brothers or Laurel and Hardy or or whoever so I read a lot about theater and I knew you could go and there were open auditions even if you didn't have an agent I thought well I'll be a waiter or a taxi driver or you know like any other struggling actor it was a goal of mine and then I'll go to New York and I'll do theater and and make my way of that way you know this is a great place to change because yeah this is the last little section if you a couple of questions then we're going to Star Wars yeah I just got for the tour and I always attempted to say to the interviewer I'll answer any question you want but I don't want to talk about Star Wars but what I want to do is you guys you guys are probably ask questions about Star Wars I'm gonna ask some questions that you wouldn't ask okay so you were about a half a dozen Broadway plays right and people don't know that I don't know that about you how do they not know but people in Hollywood know I mean I a lot of times you have to understand the commitment I get Harrigan and Hart which was not a success but between doing it out of town and doing the the the at the good speed you know the try out production and so forth it took 20 months of my life now I go back to to Los Angeles and most people said oh are you still in the business like I'd retired or something Chita Rivera knew but she knows all about theater so I was so thrilled that she knew she said honey I've been in a lot of stinkers so she was in 1491 which closed by ACTU right as they as they say in the producers but so really only the people in the tri-state area will actually know who's on Broadway you know in New York and Connecticut and in New Jersey and so forth it's a whole separate world I mean Hollywood doesn't care what Broadway's doing Broadway doesn't care what Hollywood's do you know it's but but the thing is you didn't take easy parts I mean you took Mozart and Amadeus right and then on the whole yeah and on the entirely different spectrum you did the Elephant Man right and that's that's courageous well you know I'd seen the production with Tim Korea's Mozart and Ian McKellen as Salieri and what struck me because I thought okay it's gonna be a history lesson about you know a biography of Mozart and I was just struck at how I related to Mozart so much because here he wrote this celestial heavenly music and he was kind of course and he was like a rock star he just was so impudent and saucy and you know I just it really appealed to me I adored him and I've worked with him many times in voiceover and he's a great guy and someone said you know they're gonna replace them you really should try out mr. Peter Hall had never seen Star Wars so that gave me confidence because a lot of times no no no seriously it's like I wanted to go out for Midnight Express that Brad Davis did and they said no we don't need to see mark we've seen Star Wars I said well if you've only seen that how can you yeah I gotta get in the room so that you know I can walk and talk and tie my shoelaces and chew bubble gum at the same time I thought it was unfair that you'd be dismissed because well we've seen Star Wars we know he's not right for that in New York even though they have open auditions even if you don't have an agent you can sign up and wait for six hours from 8:00 a.m. and they see you at 5:30 but your so and I had a lot of experience on the stage both in school and then for semesters at Sydney College in Los Angeles so you know the fact that I could do dialects that I had you know movement and presence he was really surprised and I wound up doing the national tour with John Wood and then they brought put me in the Broadway production which is very unusual experience cuz when you're doing it for seven months with the same cast then they take you and put you in the New York production there's a put in rehearsal in the afternoon but then the very next night you have one day off then you go in the next night it's like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy wakes up and his wife's not really his wife his son's not really because everyone was wearing a right costumes and so forth but they were all different people and you know your first scene with your with Constanza is running around and and jumping on top of her and playing yeah I'm playing cats and you're mauling her it's like you meet the actress how do you do now let me Maul you only in this business would something like that happen well you we when you did any stage especially that your Broadway stuff were you confident or you nervous I always have a certain amount of performance anxiety I mean I'm not really relaxed I do deep breathing exercises and what happens is the minute you get out like today I was like I had you know I overthink things so I'm sitting there thinking what what am I gonna talk about at the 90-second why I hope there's no math question I'm screwed you know cuz science is my brother's the doctor he's still considered the success of the family because science beats the arts dr. Hamill but but I overthink these things because I thought well I don't want to save the same old stories everybody's sick of you know that my kids now can mouth as I tell them but and then once I get out here and you feel the warmth of the audience then you you you relax completely what I love doing are the real challenging things like when I did a Broadway musical I thought well I can carry it too but I don't have range I'll never be able to play Billy Bigelow and carousel I would be able to play Finch and how to succeed so you know I can sing happy birthday I can't see that seeing the star-spangled banner it's just the range is due to too broad so I auditioned and the acting they thought was fine then they put on some music and said just move to the music to see if I could have rhythm in my body and then they said okay we want you to do this but we want you to go to dance class so I went to dance class I think was Monday Wednesday and Friday for about six weeks before the first rehearsal and then we're up in Connecticut and there was clog dancing involved because it was a turn-of-the-century musical biography of Harrigan and Hart and on the first day of rehearsal I thought I'm not going to tell them you know that they've taught me all this I'm just gonna really wow them you know because these these did people in the show that's all they done were musicals you know so what took me six weeks to learn they learned before lunchtime so outwardly I'm going that's wonderful inside I'm going I hate these people but again they wondering are you a team player are you gonna be a diva are you gonna come late are you gonna have you know your own chef no you get in there you work with it that's why I mean I love the crew I don't understand anybody that goes don't look me in the eye I have to have everybody look me in my eye I want to know everybody on the crew if I don't know their name I know their job and I'm not trying to say oh I'm such a nice person it's just that they're part of the family that you know the it's a composite art it's not just one person that's doing this and that's why I love that documentary on the on the latest DVD that documentary really shows you why the end credits are an hour and a half long because thousands of people work on these movies it's just extraordinary to see the the amount of talent involved and and they become your surrogate family you're on set from you know whatever 7:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night or whatever it is you see that family more than you see your own family at home and I have to know they're on my side and if you show them you're on their side it's it just makes for a really a perfect working condition I'm so impressed by your answers I am socks we've been friends for a long time but but we've never sat down and talked like this I am so impressed and I want to just ask you I said after seeing Muppet guys talking have you seen this documentary my only complaint it's too short I wanted another 90 minutes at least and I thought I kind of restrained myself because I'm gonna spend all the time tonight asking Frank no okay this is your night okay one last question the Nexus stuff a Star Wars yes next time we should reverse I'll be the moderator Frank will be the subject the this the Broadway stuff how many Star Wars have you made before that let's see the first thing I did was in 1979 was Elephant Man so I think I'd finished Empire but we hadn't done Jedi yet you know what that means this guy is a huge star and he went eagle less in to a situation that was out of his comfort zone that's really courageous just so you know that in Elephant Man you're standing behind a scrim waiting to go on and Donal Donnelly was playing dr. Treves and he's describing Michelangelo's perfect man is on the scrim and you're wearing like a swaddling cloth it's like a know you know a glorified diaper the scrim goes up and Mary Lou later said to me I could literally see your knees knocking because it was it was terrifying from the day I auditioned on a Sunday three Sundays later they snuck me on I was announced for Tuesday they said you want to go on in the Sunday matinee I said no I don't have enough rehearsal you know I mean that's too short I mean it's a really complex part even as I was performing and I'm discovering things and performers going oh my gosh I just got this you know that's the thing people say how do you do the same thing eight times a week I never do this exact same thing eight times right you want to react in them in real-time to what's going on and you are an integral part of each performance you know it's so unlike television or movies that's why I love the theater so much is because the input from the audience really motivates you and it's like music your your response your laughter your gasps your tears whatever it is it's just indescribable I mean and there's no other way to get that than in front of a live audience yeah absolutely okay in the Star Wars now and just so you know I got a clock here I'm watching and so I'm gonna ask my Star Wars questions about 50 minutes and then I'm getting you back a half an hour for questions okay so that's all good okay I'm curious for this okay when you first auditioned the Star Wars the first one what were you asked to do and what did you think of this new project and who was in the room and all that stuff well the first time I heard about it they said there's George Lucas who I'd seen American Graffiti it's still one of my all-time favorite comedies is doing this thing called I think it's called the Star Wars then and and I said well what is it and they said I don't know I think it's something like Flash Gordon so I said I'm in and I asked my agent you know very famously Robert Englund told me about it I don't want to rain on his parade because he makes a real point of saying if it weren't for me Marc wouldn't be in Star Wars a lot of people told me about in fact my agents really upset about that story because when I call him this said hey Bobby England told me there's a she said you already have on the audition set up now I've gone out for graffiti and I didn't make it past the cattle call so in Star Wars the first thing was a cattle call where you go and there's just 50 to 80 people milling about and you could tell the teenage actors were all Luke's and the more the elder you know elder the mill you know that the you know the leading men types were potential Han Solo's but you when I went in there's no script I went in and there were two people sitting there Brian DePalma was looking at people for carry his adaptation of the Stephen King novel which is set in high school and and there was a man sitting next to him and basically Brian said so tell us a little bit about yourself and I did just what I did with you guys tonight I was one of seven children and blah blah blah in two or three minutes I hear well thank you very much and you know you don't really know what part you're what what what your characters like nothing and the reason I brought out of American Graffiti I had done that for graffiti and I didn't make it past that you know so I didn't go on to the next stage which is to get a screen test and by the way when I left I said who was that is that Brian De Palma's assistant that was sitting there that little guy with the beard they go no that was George Lucas he did not say one word not hello not thanks for coming he was just I thought he was gonna go get mr. DiPalma a coffee so the next thing that happens is my agent says okay you have a screen test and it's gonna be Harrison Forrest Harrison Ford from American Graffiti and the conversation they said yeah and then I got this screen test and again it's out of context it's it's a modified version of the scene where we're approaching the Death Star you know that's no that's a space station but obi-wan was taken out Chewbacca was taken out that luckily because if I had read a description of that an 8-foot furry guy wearing headphones and no pants I would be very bewildered but in any case I read this thing and I thought I don't know what to make of it I mean is it serious is it like a parody is it like Mel Brooks I'm an avoid telling the actual line that was cut out of the movie because MIT Chelsea says dad I can mouthed that line because you tell it told it so often all I'm saying was I couldn't figure out why wait wait wait wait what was a line and I tell Chelsea I said honey the only reason I tell people this story it gives them a better idea of the challenge of trying to figure out how to play it correctly you know it's the scene where we're going towards the Death Star and Han Solo turns me and says something like you know [Laughter] he basically says I've held up my side of the bargain and as soon as we get to so and so you and the Troy's you're out of here so he says he's gonna dump us as soon as you know we get to such and such and the line walks again this is amazing because this is 1976 it doesn't appear in the eventual screenplay thank goodness because I could diagram the sentence I could fit I knew what it meant but I said the real challenge is to make it sound like it's coming off the top of my head like you know like I'm saying it for the first time and the line was but we can't turn back fear is their greatest defense I doubted the actual security there's any greater than it was on a collage Sullust and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] you know intellectually I thought but we can't turn back I get that fears their greatest events yeah this huge thing is so imposing that that's their greatest defense I doubted the actual security there at the Death Star is any greater that was on a Collider saw us two Bs names for planets that George made up and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault like yeah on Armada the Millennium Falcon in comparison is the size of a dime so I mean I could figure it out but I said now say it like it's it's occurring to you for the first time and just let it rip off your tongue now I'm going to on the day of the screen test I go to George and and say some George is this sort of like humorous or you know trying to get a feeling is you could see him like physically record he said something to me that I was learned to that I would hear for many many years when he goes on well let's just do it and we'll talk about it later translation translation let's just do it and we'll never talk about it ever again and then I go to Aaron because I thought well he has experience he worked with George on graffiti and so I'm basically pumping him this are you doing this sort of like arch or you know sending it up or a ricer you know whatever like that well he's not he's not healthy either so you know it took me years to because they said will you sign this release so we can put your screen test on the DVD extras and you know I said okay you know I don't watch them anyway so I don't care but the family was all out one afternoon when I think we were making force awakens and I'm at the the house by myself and I'm just on the internet and all of a sudden it comes up auditions for Star Wars they said wow do I have the nerve to watch this I thought well what could it hurt I already got the part and so I watched I watched William Katt I watched Kurt Russell I watched Robby Benson and the amazing thing to me was they were all would have been perfect leaks all of them were legitimate in their own way and Kurt Russell in a way was sort of edging towards even Han Solo he could probably have played both parts Robby was the most boyish and young and William Katt was just oozing with charisma and I thought okay now I got to bite the bullet and watch me and the only thing I thought the smart choice I made was I didn't comment on the material I did it as sincerely as possible and what happens is when I really want something there's a certain neediness that comes through that makes people uncomfortable so I always tell people the best thing you can do is act like you don't want it be aloof the aloof or the better but the thing is probably because Harrison was so laid-back I just dialed back the energy and was as sincere as possible and I all I can say is I again I don't know why they picked me out of everybody else and by the way they cast two sets of princess pirate and farm boys we never mixed and match it was either Colome harry harrison or me or the other three Marshall Lucas later said when George was packing to go to London for to stay to make the movie he still hadn't chosen and she said I was the one that recommended your so I have to thank Marsha for that because again I when we started working together it's like I'd known them all my life I you know we had so much fun you know I just instantly I lized Harrison he was like a big brother a father figure I mean he was so smart he told me the very first day of shooting I just want you to know I'm the heroes hero and I I'm kind of like Luke in the in the sense that when it's right in front of me I don't really get it you know I don't I don't recognize obi-wan right away when I meet Yoda get out of my supplies I'm looking for a great Jedi Master looking around for you know I don't know six foot anyway it's right there and from me I said what do you mean by that and he said well you know I won't do Harrison he said well if it weren't for me there's no way you would have blown up the Death Star oh you're right and and thanks for that by the way so I mean I was just I'd seen him in conversation he makes so much out of that little part as Bob falfa in American Graffiti as to that effortless laconic sense of humor I wish he'd do more comedy because he is really really funny it is and he won't show that side of it like you know we'd be in my dressing room and there was a song there was a disco song and he's doing all this goofy dance goofy dancing it's like one froggy evening as soon as somebody else goes it he's cool then they leave and he's back to do all that stuff you can't imagine he had me in stitches but and then Carrie comes along and you know she's just adorable I mean she's tiny and you know I thought she's 19 and she's barely out of high school well I'm a worldly 24 ha how am I gonna relate to this girl and plus she's Hollywood royalty she's got famous parents she's probably spoiled rotten and come to think of it she was but she was also miles ahead of me intellectually I mean she seemed like she was 40 in her mind you know I had dinner with her I said we should probably get together on the phone let's have dinner together so we can get to know each other a little before we start filming and within I don't know five six minutes she's telling me these hair-raising Li personal stories about her parents and oh my god I didn't want to tell you it's like should I be hearing this you know she was treating me like I was an old family friend that had known them all for years I mean she was just amazingly candid and I'm sort of guarded you know about my personal life and you know I don't want I'm in show business my kids are not so I'd want to keep them protected but I'm just saying that we just fell into it immediately in terms of repartee and and you know I guess the the chemistry was right because you know we were all so accepted by you and Kari said you know Kerry you know she would she could say you know she saw the movie and she said you know that freshly punched look you have that will take you far like that I I went Thanks my freshly punch look is I mean if you look at it you know I am I'm always sort of bewildered you know I also learned one time I was in front of a you know thousands of Star Wars fans at one of those conventions and I said the phrase it's only a movie well you would have thought I Spit on the Pope they were absolutely aghast they just booed and I had to tell them I said you guys I'm quoting George Lucas because I remember we were shooting I Harrison okay I went to Africa first with Sir Alec and the droids and did all the Tatooine stuff then I came back to England Harrison came over first and then a few weeks later Carrie came over and we were doing all the Death Star running around the desk start stuff and I remember seeing Harrison in rehearsal and during takes and I was thinking he's hitting on the princess I didn't like that you know I thought you know Luke we had a determination he was supposed to rescue her and everything despite the fact she took over her own rescue you know no damsel in distress that one you know you call this a plan getting that gun made us look like real mooks but I said bothered me and I sort of went to George and I said you know I think Lou would pick up on the fact that Han Solo's you know you know hitting on her and it's just getting under my skin and you know Harrison says hey look you know just get rid of it and we got into it over that and he finally said come on let - George says come on let's just do it it's only a movie and he would say that quite often especially when there were conflicts let's just do it it's only a movie and so anyway don't don't be alarmed when I say that because he does put it in perspective he also said something that people don't like to hear which is it's this is a movie for kids and he I mean he hit the sweet spot where it's for kids of all ages but we were you know on my Twitter bio it says aim low you'll never be disappointed in a way that's I thought of it that way it is like children's theater it is like The Wizard of Oz or it's like any of those classic fairy tales we expect to be on the cover of Jack and Jill and highlights not Time magazine and Newsweek and you know it was the unpretentious quality I think that people admired that you know that we weren't sort of preachy or whatever it was just effortlessly it seemed we tried to make it as as natural as possible you were talking about earlier about how you really enjoy the fact that the spaceships were all dented and oil drips it looked lived in it looked like people you know wasn't all antiseptic and pristine like some and it's not even science fiction I thought you know it says a galaxy far far away it says once you know it's so close to once upon a time and we would get tell exes faxes in those days from 20th Century Fox I'd go up to Robert Watson's office he's an induction manager he said come read this one and and it was that the the comment I made earlier is why doesn't the Wookiee wear pants wouldn't you like put him in later hosen or some variation of bermuda shorts and i thought wow if that's what they're getting from the dailies were in big trouble you can only laugh and keep your fingers crossed okay so it's time for you guys and I thought we're asking questions there but I have questions here from you guys okay so many of your characters have different speech pattern oh wait that's me oh good oh you don't know no is this smart ask you a question he asked it's you okay I'll make this fast many of your characters have different speech patterns Grover Yoda etc does this help you find their voice or does the voice help shape the pattern that's interesting I don't think about the voice what I mean what I do is different from mark what he does is amazing I I know I know I I make this very fast your night I walk on character and then the voice eventually comes and I did study abortion but some old men from Yoda but the other Muppets mainly I it came I'm not a voice person this makes a wonderful moment in Muppet guys talking where he he and I so related to where he said one little phrase you you latch on to and that informs the whole character with Grover um hmm just one and from that you get an idea of as an actor and even if you're not an actor if you watch this documentary it it's it's wonderful because you you get an inside look at how they come up with these amazing characters that I loved so so much Sesame Street I mean the minute I watched it I thought not only is it a revolutionary children's learning program its enormous ly entertaining and they're not talking down to kids it's it's as if they're doing it for adults it was and now it's taken for granted but I'm telling you when it first came on we'd never seen anything like it [Applause] okay what all this is for kind of mainly you but what was it like for the two of you to do scenes together and did Yoda feel like a something fella back it was that did he seem like a I feel like he was a comm commandeered comrade I don't know well we don't know yeah I'm sorry Breanna as Breanna I'm sorry but we we got shot laughter but the question is yeah you got the gist well it was interesting because on Empire Strikes Back all of a sudden from the days of being on the Death Star and hanging out with Carrie and Harrison now I was I'd be the only human being on the call she he would say actor Mark Hamill role Luke Skywalker props Yoda snakes r2d2 lizards and and you know we would rehearse and so forth but once Frank and and Kathy Mullen and Wendy I'm blanking on her last name the three of you that were operating Yoda would go get into the trenches and be covered up I had a little earpiece so I could hear Frank over his microphone and and that was unusual in and of itself this urban Kershner was directing one time I burst out laughing and cut the tape because if I walked yeah out of the range of the of his microphone I'd pick up radio signals so it would be and I'd hear the stones so I just laughed and I said hey I'm picking up the stones here and Irvin said look if that happens again don't break just you know cuz we were really under the gun to get this done and so I would hear I remember another song with more and more how do you like it how do you like it which is also the song Harrison would dance to to make my laugh but when that came up I mean I would just still stay in the scene and the only way I knew when to come in with my line is when Yoda's mouth stopped moving because I was hearing music so it was a really interesting set of circumstances and and you know a lot of times there the the puppet was so sophisticated it would have malfunction and the eyes wouldn't work right or the years or whatever and they would rush the puppet up to the to the Stuart's workshop to to fix it and they would say okay let's turn around on mark so a lot of times there was the dead version you know that didn't move and they you know whatever and also they would put a pieces they put a stick in the ground and get your eye line with a piece of tape now it sounds like that's a marvelous feat on my part but I remembered exactly what Frank and Kathy and Wendy had done and we had just done it so I'm looking at a tape on a piece of Sigma but I am ready I can be a Jedi but that's all the process people say isn't that weird flying a spaceship you know in a movie and stuff I said it's no different than when you're driving a car on a soundstage and it's not really a car and they're rocking and it's cutaway you know it says it's as artificial as opposed to real driving as being in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon it's all make-believe but I immediately I mean I'm telling you first of all when I read it Yoda was like a revelation to me I mean it was such a deep cerebral character he was spiritual I mean it was like taking the obi-wan character and and really moving that those ideas forward because you know obi-wan was no longer with us and and we you needed that character desperately and and Luke needed a mentor he needed the wisdom that he didn't have and I you know I was so excited to be working with Frank and and you know because I'd idolized them up it's all my life I mean it's funny cuz because Bheema on the Muppet Show this was big for me this was like oh my god she's as big a star as Meryl Streep to me and and I'm telling you all of these things that have happened to me I so appreciate them you know what I'm saying it's like I don't take it for granted our wars now oh sure I'll do the movie Joe I'm like so so great and like I say we rehearse a little bit on the weekends and so forth before we started filming and it's an amazing phenomenon when I took my when Nathan was little and the kids were small I take him to Sesame Street even when the Muppet ears standing there with the puppet right on their arm the kids they're looking there they're not looking here it just because people say is it hard to to make we go to real I said are you kidding me he was real from me from day one I so it couldn't have been any better than I imagined to have him that's why it was such a thrill that they went back to old school and used to puppet in the last Jedi instead of and nothing nothing against CGI which is amazing but there's something about a physical presence the depth the weight there's something the human eye detects that and it's it's it's just so much more real because otherwise I don't know how you did it in the in the prequels whether it was a stick with a piece of tape on it or a model of Yoda but you did the voice and they played the tracks on set is of the way I'm just scratch track and then it of the final later but I I did I work with live Yoda oh you know one more time yeah Oh on the prequels and then they replace you yeah okay well like I say there was a desire both with JJ and with Ryan to go back to practical effects as much as they could and with Star Wars we had no there CGI was not of to us the biggest innovation in the original Star Wars was computer programmed cameras so that they could make the swoops alright and the assault on the Death Star and then they could go back to position a and make those same as the model stayed stationary was the camera that moved around and did all those things that was the breakthrough in that film but for the most part all of those things were practical effects I mean the bantha outside the the cantina and I would always ask the prop people can I climb up inside I want to see what it's like in there I love this story because it's just so bizarre I went inside the the banth of the one that was tied outside the cantina for the exteriors in North Africa when we went into the cantina it was on a soundstage in London but I'm inside the bantha and I'm looking around with my little flashlight because there was a crowbar where you could move its head up and down and somebody could swish the tale very rudimentary sort of oversized prop but the inside was covered with paper mache and I remember seeing sideways there was a review of a David Bowie live in Paris and I read the whole review and I thought you know you have one of those moments where you go this is a situation I never anticipated and the third one the what is it called the The Return of the Jedi which by the way they were we shot at him the title Revenge of the Jedi and then someone said wait a second Jedi's I'm supposed to have Revenge are they oh yeah okay revenge is a much more powerful word that's why George wanted a grabber you know and I eventually got to do Revenge of the Sith but I said can I go inside Jabba which was much more sophisticated than the then the bantha and they said sure go inside because there had a guy on tail and you know all these things and I the one thing that I remember was it was like a sauna in there you know when I came out my dresser was like oh my what did you do cuz I was you know I look like a drowned rat I was sweating I had to go back and change into the other outfit and get my hair dried and my mate changing all that but I loved you know if you're a film fan I was never in my dressing room I was up in the Creature Shop i watch stuart freeborn pour the mold they'd whip up the phone for Yoda he would let me do tasks I love to get my hands on things and and and and you know like that cameo and Jedi I didn't know they were gonna bill me I just said I'd love to do a motion capture character you know I'd say they said it's the voice of Mark know I went down on a Saturday and I had a motion capture suit and they had this big beach ball that was this representing bb-8 so that da Bousquet was the right size and by the way that's a salute to Bob to do sky who's the one of the effects men on on the movie but I did there's there's Easter eggs that to this day I haven't revealed that are in those movies yeah but I the only reason I said if you let me do such-and-such I won't tell anybody not build and not paid but just do it for the fun of it cuz you know I've said this many times if you can't have fun making a Star Wars movie something's really wrong it's it's just fun all day long and you know I think you know I'd be in that situation like when we were getting ready to swing across with the princess thinking I've done this before i played Zorro in my backyard I played Robin Hood I played all these things now I have all these grown-ups helping me play Zorro and Robin Hood you know so I use my sisters jump rope and broke it and got in trouble now I'm in a harness and there's all these people that will protect me and allow me to do that it was just fantastic Wow I'll try to keep my answers short I'm sorry me but in for a second the just so you know I've said this all the time I just want people to know this that about half of Yoda is him if he didn't believe in Yoda it wouldn't work so there's you know kind of you to say his try disagree I think that's all yo the next question next question okay he's so real next question anybody what is your favorite behind-the-scenes memory for Star Wars or any time Carolina again it's just so many I mean I just mentioned swing across with the princesses normally the you know you you do things over and over again you do a master where you see everything then you go in for two you know a two-shot with two people then over the shoulders or close of it and you're gonna do the scene many many times to get it finished with the swing across I was really looking forward to it because I had a harness on it was the the Foy company they're the same people that developed the harness that flew Peter Pan because in the in the Manmatha Adams did it on Broadway in the teens she could just swing back and forth the Foy's came up with an idea where they could go this way and then this way in this way so it's revolutionary was the same technique that they've used since Mary Martin in the 50s and here's my chance to fly so we're getting ready I'm in a harness carries an artist and then there's a there's a link that connects us together that were hidden by our costumes so camera a ready camera B there were four cameras rolling so they go and on action you know the kiss was before this was just for the swing across so swing across and whoo it's wonderful like you thought and they go and cut good for camera good for camera good okay moving on one tape I said boy what a [ __ ] I was really looking forward to this and I'm you know having my little tantrum like and and the guy that was flying me said you want to fly then just disconnect carry they just connected carry he started flying me all over and it lasted for about 30 seconds cuz George was just appalled you because you know I'm an insurance risk if I'm a splat on the side of the wall oh my god so he was appalled and they they shut that down awfully fast but I I had my moment of peterpan just for just for a few moments this is going back to the or another day of auditioning but afterwards what from Michelle Perez what did you do the day you found out he got the part of Luke Skywalker well first of all my agent called and said you you got the part and they're sending the script over and I said oh great and they sent the script over and the title-page said the adventures of Luke Skywalker has taken from the Journal of the Wills saga number one the Star Wars okay and I'm thinking because from the screen test Harrison was the leading man you know he was cool he was like you know he was to me just the perfect lady man and I was sort of the annoying sidekick you know so I when I read the title page I went oh so Harrison's Luke Skywalker I can't remember what character I am well I'll just start reading and maybe they'll come back with me now mind you I'd only read 12 pages I start reading this thing and I'm telling you guys even without John Williams music even without those amazing special effects in the art direction and the Ralph McQuarrie paintings it's so on the page I mean it was it just grabbed me it made me laugh I thought robots fighting over whose fault it is I mean this is this is crazy you know the in the description of the wiki you know I I just it was I couldn't believe my eyes and I just I got goosebumps because I thought all of these movies you know 7th voyage of Sinbad and Jason the Argonauts King Kong all of these things you know it couldn't have been more perfect a movie for me to even visit the set up much less be in but like I say I get to the part where they describe Luke Skywalker and they said you know he's teenager wait a second Harrison's a really good actor but I don't think he could be this so I called my agent I said Who am I playing again they said you're Luke I mean come on you know I the only thing I complained about I said we're only getting a thousand a week I made was making eight thousand a week on television she said hey it's George Lucas it's a movie it's Alec Guinness I don't know yeah I paid them are you kidding what what did your scene you there was different than the others because you said the others were great they were great I would I don't know I've heard later I mean it was a you know you know the enthusiasm I don't know and like I say we were cast as a group you know I mean you know why do Laurel and Hardy work you know that chemistry between them I don't want to be too lofty maybe why does Larry Moe and Curly work there you know we offset each other perfectly I guess but he never really told me this is why probably because you know I so reflected what he wanted for the character effortlessly you know that I was innocent I was wide-eyed I was enthusiastic I was all of those things but it was weird you know the odds of me getting this without knowing you know because if he was meant to be cynical and kind of a wiseass I mean I'm an actor I would do that you know they did say he was a farm boy that was probably the only thing I had going for me when I first met George is that don't be too urban be as genuine as possible but I really don't know to this day exactly why yeah I'm glad me too okay I just asked this one here if you could recast yourself in Harrison together in any movie outside of stars or star wars what would it be oh gee well I already said I'd love for him to do comedy I would love to do something along the lines of Butch Cassidy I mean I think he'd be great in a Western I've never done a western Texas wheelers that was a modern-day thing something along the lines of the sting I would love to work with Harrison again but the odds are very slim because it's you know it's just maybe it's not meant to be I mean maybe it's it should be special I mean I mean people say were you shocked when you you were so briefly in force awakens' that's not what really struck me when I realized oh my god I'll never have a scene with Harrison you know Luke will never be able to say goodbye to his best friend his mentor his you know you know that that's he's such an important part of Luke's life and you know just selfishly oh gosh I won't be able to work with Harrison again so that was that was tough mm-hmm yeah if you if you were not an actor what would you be well I thought about that because you know as as my parents said you got to have something to fall back on because my father said you just going through a phase you know you'll grow out of this I'll tell you something in 1974 I had already been on a soap opera for nine months I guessed it on dozens and dozens of TV shows I'd had my own TV series that got canceled but I did 13 episodes so you know I was really thought I was doing really well and I took my father to see a screening of the Paper Chase which is about law students and it was on the lot at Fox so I thought I'll really impress him you know we went on the lot and everything and on the way home he said to me he was talking about the movie the movie I thought it was really good and I said oh fantastic John Houseman what what a great actor and he said you know mark if you ever thought about going back to law school or going to law school I'd match you dollar for dollar and I was really insulted by that I was hurt by that and I thought boy I could level this guy if I just told him how much I made last year because I know as a naval officer he never made more than $20,000 and I was tempted and I thought you know mark don't it's just mean it's really gonna hurt hit him where he lives and I just swallowed my pride and said okay dad I'll think about that but it just shows you you know I'd been my first job was the summer of 1970 so 1 2 3 4 I'd been it for 4 years and I look back and think what are the odds how lucky I was I did a play the first summer I was there in Los Angeles somebody in the audience was in the music industry and his daughter was in the in the cast he later said to me because he saw this show many many many times and then I was over to the house and I was doing my impression and making people laugh and all these things and he said to me if you're serious I know somebody that could probably get you an agent and so I said oh yeah I would love that and so but I had to be in school because I would have been drafted the Vietnam War was going on and I thought I can play a soldier I don't think I could be one and like with my brother I could play a doctor I don't have the smarts to be a doctor but then here I went around after school hitchhike to where our was going and did two scenes I did a monologue where I had played Snoopy in in you're a Good Man Charlie Brown so I did the Red Baron sit right on the floor of the of the office and he show comic timing and then I had somebody read with me his daughter Lauren bogus Gil bogus was the guy who got me the the meetings with the agents in any case she read with me and I did a scene from the subject was roses to show drama so before Christmas after my first year I was there in the summer by Christmas I had an agent and I couldn't they'd send me out for jobs and I would go out for them and then I got something and I said I can't do it I'm in school if I missed five classes at five days they'll drop me and then you know off I go to the army so it was very frustrating my agents were saying well why are we representing if you won't go to work and all that I said just wait till summer now the next summer was the summer of 1970 and I wound up getting three I think one television one after a job which was on videotape and three film things and I got my union card now at the time you're just thinking well this is the way it works when I look back and think how lucky I was to get that far in such a short period of time you can't appreciate it except in hindsight you know you just take it as it comes you know I'm in Star Wars oh okay oh it's gonna outgrow straws okay so will my next movie what do I know I mean it's amazing you know it's only in retrospect that's probably why I'm enjoying coming back to the to the movies because I'm enjoying in a way I couldn't have in my 20s you know it's it's you you just don't take it for granted and then and the way the the public comes up to you and and and relays these stories it's you know it helped them get there through their parents illness or the little boy who said to me you know he had his arm amputated and said I wasn't scared because Luke lost his you know I know you you save your tears for the cab ride home because you meet these kids that are so inspired in ways that you never could've anticipated and it's it's moving in a way cuz you know when I go back to my everyday life you know it's pick up after the dogs and take the trash out it's not like you know I live some up on some celestial mountain in the mad world of champagne parties with Barbra Streisand it's you know it's it's just like a pick up your socks [ __ ] so to to to experience again because we never thought we'd come back I bet even they make new ones they're gonna we had a beginning a middle and then they'll do new characters it could be a hundred years in the future for all I know so when George said I have a meaning let's have a meeting was Carrie and I my wife Mary Lou Kane were getting ready to go over there and Mary Lee said what if he wants to do another trilogy and I just laughed I said he specifically said I'm not doing these anymore I don't want to be doing them in my 70s I said Mary Lou he said we're not doing any more he's gonna want us to do some extra for the DVD or for the release they were releasing them in 3d it'll be something it'll be a favor which God knows we owe him but we go and it scary I knew something was up because Chelsea was with us and they said no Chelsea goes to lunch with George's daughter so I said okay this is gonna be big and when he said oh well I'm gonna turn over to Luke this one to Kathy Kennedy and they wanted to do another trilogy and if you don't want to do it they won't recast they'll just write your character out now I I'm like this [Laughter] Carrie goes I'm in again to show you how far ahead of me she was always said she's like six steps enemy later and she immediately said is there anything in it for Billy meaning her daughter so you know then the meaning finishes and George goes on and we give him a hug and off he goes and later I said Carrie pokerface why did you do that I mean look at me I didn't I didn't react at all inside I was going but outside it was like this [Applause] and you know what she said to me she said mark what kind of parts are there in Hollywood for women over 50 mm-hmm and I said oh my gosh because as brutal as it can be on men it's a million times harder on women you know notice how the guys get older and the girlfriend always stays 28 in their 30s and then needs 40 20 year-old girlfriend and he's 50 28 year-old girl and he's 50 60 70 28 year-old girlfriend so it's much harder and you know again she she led me without even knowing I was being led I don't know if I said this night she came to see me on Broadway she goes what's with your [ __ ] bio you know it was like my third or fourth show on Broadway I'd already done more shows than she had and I said what are you talking about she doesn't you don't even mention the movies by name she goes what I said I mentioned them she goes yeah it says Hamel known for a series of space themed films made his Broadway debut in such and such and such and such and such as that so and I said to her I got I really got my backup I said well it's theater Carrie they don't take Star Wars seriously I mean the critics probably have it out for me just because I'm in those movies and she said mark I'm Princess Leia you're Luke Skywalker get used to it and get over yourself and I said I've been nominated for a Drama Desk nomination she says no one cares you did win you were just not you know as usual she was right but I didn't get it in the moment I would sort of matter Carrie and I were like real brothers and sisters in more than the way you would anticipate because I loved her but she could drive me crazy you know she was exasperating in a way that because I had a real crush on her don't get me wrong but I thought boy if she were my girlfriend what a handful because she was wonderful she was entertaining she was witty and she was a surfer she was all those things that you know but she was exhausting you know I mean I'd go out with her and I'm thinking wow I can't keep up with this woman and it was the smartest thing we ever did to sort of avoid that you know but a you know she was so influential on on even when we didn't see each other for years and years and years and she would we get in these huge fights I said you are so full of yourself you know you little spoiled brat from Beverly Hills that have everything given to you on a silver platter blah blah blah and she said you know she would give it back as well as she got it and we'd fight fiercely and then of course like your real sister the next time you see her all that's forgotten and your your your friends again it was it was that way I only tell you that because I don't want to paint this glorified picture of that it was the perfect relationship it wasn't but maybe she's certainly unlike anyone else I'd ever met and you know in my life was so much more interesting because of her last question from gertrude goldstein I think what was the most challenging period of your career or life and did you learn a lot from it well I think Yoda says you know failure is an important part of learning so I mean I look back in certain things that I loved the most were the biggest flops of my career on television the Texas wheelers it was a comedy without a laugh track which was in those days it's commonplace now in 1974 no one had ever seen anything like that you know the critics I remember the New York Times said probably the finest bucolic comedy since Tobacco Road we got canceled after four episodes and I was devastated because I said what I loved about my character was that he was he was effortlessly funny he wasn't trying to be funny but he was a braggart and you bragged about all his conquests with women Gary Busey played my older brother and he you know he was a yeah I know I'd never seen anything like Gary I said I screen tested him they said what do you think it was down to him and and another actor I said you know the Tom Ligon is a great Broadway actor he'd be perfect but that Gary Busey I mean he's so authentic those big those horse teeth and I mean I know I just never seen anything like him but so but what I'm saying is it got canceled and I thought I'm never gonna get to do comedy again not like that cuz like I said he was a braggart boasting about all of this women he was a virgin he was a 16 year old kid anyway if that show had been a hit was it premiered in the fall of 1974 if it had been a hit I wouldn't been able to do Star Wars mm-hmm now Harrigan and Hart again I loved it it was the hardest thing I've ever done the most challenging in terms of the singing the dancing and you know I mean I'm telling you these people in their musical comedies it is hard hard hard hard work and again to make it look so effortless it's just stunning to me I was crushed when that didn't run again some of my favorite slipstream I said if this thing goes it's my only chance of a career as a character actor because I was playing this ruthless badass a man of not many words but I said if I have any chance of being a Bond villain it's this film and it I love that movie but it just didn't catch on in the box-office bill paxton Bob pack Kitty Aldridge a fantastic film but you know again so you don't measure your career by that's the best thing I ever did because it made a bazillion dollars some of my favorite things that I cherish on my resume were were the biggest commercial failures of my career so and I don't regret them if they say if you went back as Harrigan and Hart from when you did it at good speed and out of town and on Broadway 20 months no because every month every day I spent on that I learned something and I if I went could go back I wouldn't change it it was meant to be like I say then it puts things in perspective then you're you're in a show that it is a big hit I did room service and you know they wrote rave reviews and there were lines around the block Alan Arkin directed it and you know it's wonderful to be in a hit I mean when the reviews came out for certain films were plays where they're not even pants they're like well it's sort of sitcom II and whatever I mean the audience's would roar with laughter and it was a sad ending they cried at the end standing ovations not consistently but I mean people adored it as soon as they read the critics say that it's not the greatest thing they've ever seen the very next night the reaction you get them back by the end of act 1 but I thought what actually because I was ready to make my entrance and Harrigan hearted their laps weren't there that had been there for you know out of town and it Goods me I said to my Chester what's going on out there and she just goes cheap because I don't blame you because you've been told by the New York Times this is not great theater so you don't want to be one of the commoners you want to you know you think the only in theater is is the New York Times the Bible now there's no single voice make a film a hit or critic on television that will make a TV show a hit but here you've got to get reviews unless you have a TV commercial or you have enough money to take losses for six weeks because shows like scarlet pimpernel or that that guy who writes all those musicals that the audience loves but the critics don't he does the recording first itself as an album just without Andrew Lloyd Webber did superstar and in his shows but he also is figures into the budget how you can run it a loss for at least six weeks is what happens is if you're in New York you go WOW Harrigan heart is still running now I didn't think I got the greatest rout it must be good because it's still running so if I were a producer I'd paid at least a half a million dollars for half empty houses which thankfully tonight we don't have to worry about I mean even tonight when I got here I said how's the house the first thing I would say when I would get to work in New York it's a house the house tonight and I also said don't tell me then one time they said you know who's in the audience tonight Jackie Gleason I don't tell me that because now all I can think about is Jackie Gleason's watching me so they would give me a note after I'd come off and they you'd open it up and it would say who was in the audience and one night I was doing Amadeus you know Mozart freezes when Salieri addresses the audience which was interesting because you'd have to pick a place in the audience's it don't look anybody in the eye so you have to be frozen don't scare it at the woman's cleavage because that's rude big a shoulder to be safe and and a peripheral vision I would see like oh my gosh Christopher Walken's here tonight but you're frozen one night I came off stage at a matinee and I opened up the little note and said Katharine Hepburn I said I know that's just how I reacted and I mean when Gleason came I ran out the stage doors still in my wardrobe they said oh he's gone you know I wanted to see the exhaust from his car but with with Katharine Hepburn I went Katharine Hepburn and they said yes and you know she wants to meet you now I had the downstairs dresser Salieri you know the star has the star dressing room anyway the stage manager came or the the doorman came down and said the first thing she said was I walked to me the ball I now this would have been like 85 so I was I was like 32 but she comes downstairs and she's diminutive no makeup you know a black shirt black pants you know and and the minute I would try and talk about anything about her career I don't want to talk about my career I want to talk about you you know how can you defame Mozart in such a way and I said well I totally get that because I had musicologist people when we did it in Chicago coming to stage or and they said it's really defined to words Mozart and I really did a lot of research and not only what was he very much similar to the way he is in the play he liked his wine he was that really enamored of scatological humor which isn't in the play thank God I mean he would write these long letters to his mother and father on the coach rides you know - - from Vienna and back and forth about you know the you know the the hundred and sixty-five functions of the a hole you know so I guess that was a side to him that you know that Peter Shaffer the playwright picked up on and I said to her because I wanted to reassure her I said you know I felt the same way I mean it seems like it's was it you know it feels odd defaming the memory of somebody that this this genius I said but miss Hepburn the way I understood it is it's being told from the perspective of his arch rival in fact he didn't even know he was a rival someone that was so insanely jealous of him he loved him so if I had somebody that loathed and despised me relate stories you'd expect him to embellish it with all my worst qualities so well all right then [Music] she didn't like that answer but she could understand cuz I said I'd not I said I'm not really responsible blame the author and the actor playing Salieri because I'm very cowardly I'm very adept at blame-shifting I never get over these things I mean I just did the Oscars I went to introduce myself to Eva Marie and she said oh ma I kept in the thought bubble I said holy [ __ ] she knows who I am you know because I'm about ready to say you know I'm one of the actors from Star Wars or whatever I'll never get used to that you know Christopher Plummer same thing is your pump that's me it's weird I just don't picture Christopher plumbers and getting up in the morning saying hey let's go see Empire Strikes Back I don't think that ever would happen well we have to wrap it up I could just go on forever but they'll kill me back there I think other way so I really I really I don't known for so long and now I'm not only impressed by bike but by touched by you oh well listen no no okay all right see thank you very much thank you very much and thank you Mark Hamill you

Channel: 92nd Street Y

Views: 1,006,902

Rating: 4.914216 out of 5

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, mark Hamill, frank oz, star wars, empire strikes back, a new hope, return of the jedi, the force awakens, the last jedi, rise of skywalker, yoda, luke skywalker

Id: BNYdNM3mIyM

Length: 90min 52sec (5452 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019

Reddit Comments

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[u/BOOMeyeSHOT]

Mark Hamill is amazing at telling stories

[u/BanishedJedi]

This was great. Thanks for posting it.