The Two Stunts They Wouldn't Let Mark Hamill Do In Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi
Most actors want to do their own stunts. Sometimes it's an ego thing, sometimes it's because they want moviegoers to see their face during a wild stunt to help with audience emersion (lookin' at you, Tom Cruise), and sometimes it's a combination of the two. The younger the actor is, the more they're likely to push to do as much on camera as possible, and that was certainly the case for Mark Hamill when he was making what, at the time, was thought to be the final "Star Wars" movie to feature Luke Skywalker, "Return of the Jedi."
During an interview for John Phillip Peecher's "Star Wars — The Making Of Return Of The Jedi" in 1983, director Richard Marquand revealed there were two notable moments during production when he forced a stunt double to take Hamill's place. One of them was during the shoot in the desert near Yuma, Arizona, for the scene where Luke is about to be sacrificed to the almighty Sarlacc. Turns out, the desert sands weren't the sturdiest foundation to film on and most of the crew had to be tethered to the sets, including Jabba's barge and the prisoner skiff holding Luke, Han, and Chewie.
The plank that Luke walks extends over a legitimately massive drop, which is why Marquand wouldn't let Hamill step foot on it. Anytime you see Hamill on the plank in the film, it's on a more controlled, locked-down set that isn't shakily hanging over a cliff. Marquand explained:
"There are, in fact, two skiffs in the sequence, and we used the second skiff for much of the close-up work. It was about four to five feet off the ground, and we were able to do all the close-up stuff on zip-up platforms around it. That wasn't nearly as dangerous."
Luke Skywalker takes a tumble
The other occasion where Marquand put his foot down was during the Throne Room fight with Darth Vader. Luke has a moment where he jumps away from the confrontation with his pops and ends up with the high ground, standing on some scaffolding. Vader has clearly had enough of this high ground business and uses the Force to throw his lightsaber up and collapses the whole dang thing, spilling Luke to the floor below.
That was another no-go from Marquand. He explained:
"The other thing I wouldn't let him do was in the Emperor's Throne Room, during the fight on the balcony. It collapses. And Luke falls off and goes skidding way down. I wouldn't let Mark do that one either. But apart from those two, he does everything; his own fights, everything."
As much as I love it when actors perform dangerous stunts, Jackie Chan-style, I totally get why a director would say, "You know what? Maybe the star of my movie shouldn't slide down a collapsing walkway in a long shot where you don't even get a good look at their face anyway." Marquand didn't mention if Hamill put up a fight over these scenes, but even with Hamill playing Luke at his most powerful I can't imagine he wouldn't agree with the director in these instances.
You can also find this interview, and many other incredible behind-the-scenes stories, collected in J.W. Rinzler's book "The Making of Return of the Jedi," by the way. His whole original trilogy series of "Making Of" books are must reads for any "Star Wars" fan.