In a new interview with THR, Mark Hamill talks about his new thriller The Long Walk, how long he can go without thinking about Star Wars, and shares his praise for Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, “They get it. They’re speaking the same language that George did.”
Stephen King wrote The Long Walk in 1967, and it was seen as an allegory for the Vietnam War. What do you think this story means today?
It’s relevant in a way it wasn’t even a few months ago — if you follow the news. It’s meant to be a dystopian future where an authoritarian government imposes this ghastly ritual [of a contest where teen boys compete until death]. It was almost hard for me to get past the premise. I thought, “I don’t know if I can even see this, forget about being in it.” I’ve always admired Francis Lawrence as a director and wanted to work with him and thought, “If I turn this down, my chances of ever working with him again will plummet.” Then I realized the premise is just an attention-grabber to get you into the story. The real heart and soul of both the novel and now the movie is the experiences of these young guys enduring this ordeal.
You’ve described your father as a “very authoritarian” career naval officer. Was there a bit of that in playing the film’s merciless The Major?
He was an authoritarian. And I remember him doing inspections of our bedrooms like we were in the service. But I don’t want to give people the idea that he was a brutal taskmaster. He wasn’t. But I’ve seen The Major, because when we were stateside, we lived on a Marine base, and I would cross the parking lot and saw young recruits being put through their paces while they were being screamed at. One time — and I blocked this out for years, it came back to me making The Long Walk — it was 108 degrees and one kid vomited. The guy in charge gave him a spoon and made him eat it. It was so traumatic. So I know who this character is.
What do you think about the idea that Lucasfilm might continue to make an AI Luke Skywalker in products, with increasing realism, even after you’re gone? Because you can say that you’re done with the character, but it’s a bit like that Breaking Bad line: “We’re done when I say we’re done.”
What you’re asking about is so hard to contemplate. Are we going to have to have something in our wills that comment on that, saying, “I don’t want this done”? I have enough trouble trying to deal with the jobs that I do have than to start speculating about the future. There’s so many questions about AI that haven’t been answered. We’ll see how it plays out.
It should be easier for you to contemplate than it would be for most because there was already the half-measure — apologies, another random Breaking Bad reference — of the de-aged version of Luke in The Mandalorian.
The reason I did Mandalorian was that Luke had a beginning and an end. There was no middle. It was like making a trilogy about James Bond as a young boy who first became aware of the Secret Service and wanted to be a part of it. Part two was him training to be an agent. Part three is earning his license to kill — The End. No From Russia With Love, Dr. No or Goldfinger. You never got to see Luke as a Master Jedi at the peak of his powers. He was the most idealistic character in that series. He was someone who would take adversity and double down and come back and counter his setbacks. We didn’t see any of that. So when I got the chance, I thought, “Geez, this is wonderful.” I think Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, boy, do they get Star Wars. They get it. They’re speaking the same language that George did in a way that I questioned in the sequels.
Does Mark Hamill ever get a day without Star Wars? Obviously this isn’t one. But a day where it doesn’t come up and you never have to think about it?
I can go for long, long periods of time where it never comes up.
Read the interview in full here.
The post Mark Hamill Praises Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni in New Interview appeared first on Jedi News.
