“They had scouted a location that was going to take us 90 minutes to get to, where there was a glacier that had blue ice that photographed blue on camera,” he says. So on Empire, suddenly…we had to be really careful.”įrom the start, arriving in Finse, Hamill and the crew were under tremendous pressure, battling the brutal elements of an extremely harsh Norwegian winter that included blizzards that shut down the train lines and essentially stranded the crew at their hotel. There wasn’t any focus on this unknown science fantasy film, but everything changed after that. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever been involved in.’ There was no social media. I mean, I remember passing the script around to my friends saying, ‘Hey, you gotta read this. Among the cast and crew, “there was a marked difference in the attitudes,” he recalls, “because on the first one nobody knew about us or cared. Nathan Elias would be born once the Hamills were back in England shooting in June of 1979. “It was a really pivotal time in my life because Marilou and I were expecting our first child,” Hamill says. “But I did that intentionally to be able to grow and make him as much of a clueless teenager as possible, because by the end of the film he has found his purpose in life and he’s so profoundly changed,” Hamill says.īehind the scenes, everything was different, as well. “You know, I get mocked a lot for, ‘But I was going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters,’” he says, his voice going higher in an exaggerated whine. Hamill knew during shooting of what would become A New Hope that the movie was the start of a trilogy, and that was “one of the reasons I tried to emphasize immaturity,” he says. But he’s game to take another spin through his memories of filming The Empire Strikes Back as we celebrate the film’s 40 th anniversary later this month. “I’ve been talking about this so much, you know, my kids mouth the answers I give because it’s been 40 years,” Hamill says at the outset. Speaking by phone from his home outside Los Angeles, Hamill exudes the affable charm and graciousness of a man who’s been embraced by Star Wars fans for decades. Hamill had always been game to do his own stunt work, like swinging over the chasm inside the Death Star, but the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, would prove to be the most physically-demanding and isolating experience of his long career in the role. For four months, he had trained in karate, fencing, kendo, and bodybuilding, preparing his body for the strenuous stunts the new script called for. In February of 1979, Mark Hamill was ready to return to the role of Luke Skywalker, arriving in the unforgiving snowscape of Finse, Norway, for his first day of shooting on a frigid location shoot that would transport viewers to the planet Hoth. To celebrate the classic film’s landmark 40th anniversary, presents “ Empire at 40," a special series of interviews, editorial features, and listicles. On May 21, 1980, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back made its theatrical debut. The actor behind Luke Skywalker takes on a journey through filming the Star Wars sequel in time for the 40th anniversary of its release.
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