The One Thing Mark Hamill Hated Most About His ‘Star Wars’ Experiences

It may be hard to picture the original Star Wars turning out any differently, but actor Mark Hamill still has a few stories about his earliest days with the role that made him famous. In a recent interview on the U.K. program This Morning, Hamill shared that he was frustrated with George Lucas over a change to Luke Skywalker’s name, and that he struggled at first to understand what the movie was even about.

Hamill explained that when he auditioned, he was only given a small portion of the script and had no clear idea of his character’s place in the story. “The thing is, I didn’t get the whole script for the screen test. It was only eight pages. I thought, ‘Who talks like this?’ So I spoke to Harrison and you know what he said? ‘Hey kid, let’s just get it done.’ He was no help at all.”

Expecting Lucas to provide more details, Hamill asked the director what kind of film it was supposed to be. “I went to George. I said, ‘George this is sort of like a send up of Flash Gordon.’ He went, ‘Let’s just do it and talk about it later.’ Translation: let’s just do it and never talk about it later.”

It was only after receiving the full script that Hamill realized Luke was not a side character. In fact, the whole story was written from his perspective. “When I was filming, Harrison, to me, was a leading man, I just assumed he was the lead character and I was his annoying sidekick. Then I get the movie, and Harrison must be Luke. He was called Luke Starkiller at that time. Then I started reading it and I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s from my point of view,’ which is really unusual to tell it through a teenager.”

Hamill then described his annoyance when Lucas made a late decision to change the character’s last name. “We shot the scene, ‘I’m Luke Starkiller I’m here to rescue you.’ I came back the next week and said, ‘Why are we doing that scene again?’ They said, ‘Oh, they’ve changed your name.’ I said, ‘To what?’ They said, ‘To Skywalker.’ Let’s face it Luke could use a little macho-ing up. It sounded like Luke Flyswatter, I hated it.”

Nice to finally get to report some news about Mark Hamill that isn’t just him crying about President Donald Trump.

Though Hamill disliked the new name at the time, “Skywalker” quickly became one of the most iconic names in film history and has remained central to the Star Wars brand. Nearly five decades after its release, the franchise continues to expand, albeit clumsily under Disney’s hands, showing that even creative choices that sparked debate can leave a lasting mark on culture.

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