The Cut Luke Line That Stumped Mark Hamill During His Star Wars Screen Test
George Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" is a structurally immaculate screenplay. You simply can't tell a sweeping intergalactic adventure — or, really, any kind of story — more thrillingly or efficiently. Beat for beat, it's considered the blockbuster narrative gold standard for a reason.
If, however, you're looking for a fantasy epic with dialogue that bounds off the page, might I recommend "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back"?
There is a certain genius to the specificity of Lucas' dialogue in the first movie. Characters drop references to Tosche Station, the Kessel Run, and the binary language of moisture vaporators like they're a part of everyday speech — and fans have seen this movie so many times that these references are now a part of their everyday speech.
Still, years before "Star Wars" changed the film industry, these were treacherously awkward words and phrases that, if recited with less than 100 percent conviction, would've landed with a rancor-ous thud. This meant Lucas needed total buy-in from his actors, or else his world-building prowess would be all for naught.
Obviously, the cast made it work. Clearly, it wasn't easy (given the way we still snicker at Luke's Tosche Station whine). And it's possible no one had a harder go of it than Mark Hamill, whose screen test included a line so clumsily written that Lucas cut it out of the screenplay.
A tale of two BS planets named Aquilae and Sullust
In a lively 2018 conversation with Frank Oz at New York City's 92nd Street Y, Hamill recalled auditioning with the scene where the Millennium Falcon approaches the Death Star for the first time (watch the video for Hamill's spot-on impression of Alec Guinness' "That's no moon..." line). Hamill was flummoxed. As he told Oz, "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?'" (How prescient, Mr. Hamill.)
The sledding got too rough for Hamill when he got to a line intended as a fiery rebuke of Han Solo's reluctance to land his ship in the Death Star. Over 40 years later, Hamill can still vividly recall the dialogue:
"But we can't turn back! Fear is their greatest defense! I doubt the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae or Sullust, and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault!"
Yeah, that's a mouthful.
Between the earnestness of Luke's mini-speech and making, as Hamill called them, "these two BS names for planets that George made up" sound natural (something Lucas likely hadn't taken into consideration), the up-and-coming actor was mortified that he'd bomb his screen test. So he brought his concerns to Lucas, which wound up not being the best idea.
Harrison Ford: great actor, not-so-great acting coach
On the day of the audition, Hamill straight-up asked Lucas if the scene was intended to be humorous. Lucas' response? According to Hamill:
"You could see him, like, physically recoil. He said something to me that I would [...] hear for many, many years when he goes, [George Lucas impression] 'Uh, well, let's just do it and we'll talk about it later.' Translation: let's just do it and we'll never talk about it. Ever again."
When this failed to allay Hamill's concerns, he turned to his more seasoned co-star for advice:
"I go to Harrison because I thought, 'Well, he has experience, he worked with George on ['American Graffiti'].' So I'm basically pumping him saying, 'Are you doing this sort of, like, arch or sending it up or, you know, wry?' He goes [grunting] 'Well, you know, whatever.' I thought, well, he's no help either!"
Obviously, Hamill did well enough with this unwieldy dialogue to land the part, but it's telling that these lines were nowhere to be found when he received the production screenplay (which was already very different from Lucas' initial draft). Now if only he'd been around for, I don't know, the entire writing process of the prequel trilogy.