Movies - TV
Mark Hamill’s First George Lucas Meeting Ended With A Call To The Cops
By JENNA BUSCH
During Mark Hamill’s first meeting with George Lucas for 1977’s “Star Wars,” he was jet lagged, the set wasn’t finished, no one cared he was there, and he ended up in a cop car.
“Jet lag is setting in while I'm meeting all of the crew. [...] And George says, ‘Oh, this is Luke Starkiller.’ Everybody just went ‘Oh’ and went back to their job,” Hamill said.
In 1976, there were political tensions between England and the Irish Republican Army with bombings around London. This led to the police incident after Hamill’s meeting with Lucas.
He explained, “I left to go back to my hotel — and got lost. [...] Three hours later, I'm still trying to find my hotel. It got so bad that I tried to get help in another hotel.”
He said, “[The hotel is] starting to get very worried — with the Tube bombings and the IRA — so they want my passport number. I couldn’t think of it, so they called the police.”
Hamill added, “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.”