Mark Hamill's First Star Wars Meeting With George Lucas Ended In The Back Of A Cop Car
Imagine being a young actor and getting a role in a feature film. It's a sci-fi adventure, and you're going to be the lead. You get all packed up and get on a plane to London to shoot, but when you get there, no one seems to care very much that you're around. That was the case for Mark Hamill, who was heading to the United Kingdom to play Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," which was simply "Star Wars" back then.
In the 2013 book "The Making of Star Wars: (Enhanced Edition)" by J.W. Rinzler (an upgraded version of the 2007 book of the same name), Hamill spoke about what it was like to head over there, all ready to go, and the odd situation he walked into that he didn't know anything about. That day was his first meeting with George Lucas and producer Gary Kurtz. It started off strangely, and led to quite an adventure. In fact, Hamill ended the day in the back of a cop car, believe it or not.
'It was really exciting, but no one cared'
The situation Hamill walked into was one that plagues lots of films: things weren't ready. Alan Ladd, the new senior vice-president in charge of worldwide production for Fox, appeared on set to speak with Lucas and Kurtz. The special effects and plates that Industrial Light & Magic were supposed to have finished weren't complete, and everything was tense. Hamill knew nothing about it. He was just excited to go to shoot in England and Africa, where he'd never been before. He said he was thrown right into a costume fitting, then the next day, he went over to meet with Lucas and Kurtz, who he was "scared" of. He recalled:
"George took me around and showed me all of the sets. They weren't painted or anything; the Millennium Falcon was just wood. You can't imagine how it's going to look. And he's explaining all of these things — 'We're going to shoot the exterior here and when you walk into the house, this is where you'll be' — and jet lag is setting in while I'm meeting all of the crew.
"Then George says, 'Do you want to go and see some test footage of the robots?' I said sure and we went to the screening room, and they were all waiting for George. And George says, 'Oh, this is Luke Starkiller.' Everybody just went 'Oh' and went back to their job, and I fell into a chair. It was really exciting, but no one cared. They were all blasé. I was really interested in what was going on, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open."
So the poor man was jet lagged, nothing he saw made sense, no one cared that he was there, and he was falling asleep. Not exactly movie magic.
'I'm sitting there with the police in a paddy wagon'
It seems like such a letdown, and having just gone through some massive jet lag, I can say that it doesn't exactly make you very receptive to things like disappointment or worry. The whole experience must have been unsettling because things just got worse from there. Hamill was tired and lost and back then, in 1976, there were some political tensions between England and the Irish Republican Army, with a number of bombings around London. That led to the big incident. Hamill recalled:
"Afterward, I left to go back to my hotel — and got lost. I thought I'd walk around and see things. Well, nothing's on a grid in England. Three hours later, I'm still trying to find my hotel. It got so bad that I tried to get help in another hotel. I'm looking through my wallet for something, a matchbook, and they're starting to get very worried — with the Tube [London subway] bombings and the IRA — so they want my passport number. But I couldn't think of it, so they called the police. And I'm sitting there with the police in a paddy wagon, and they're asking, 'Was it the Dorchester? The Grosvenor Square?' Finally, magically, we hit upon it."
Can you imagine? Plus, the movie wasn't out yet, so it's not like he could just say, "But do you know who I am? I'm Luke Skywalker!" Not that Mark Hamill is a guy who would do that, but still. It obviously worked out, but that's quite a way to start.
All the "Star Wars" movies are currently streaming on Disney+.