Mark Hamill Loses His Contractually Obligated Beard, Shares a Memory from The Force Awakens Table Read
Mark Hamill might not have had any speaking lines in The Force Awakens, but it appears he had a much larger part than anyone else during the table read (as it was revealed on TFA blu-ray special features). Together with the confirmation on this Mark also posted on Twitter an image showing that the times of his “contractually obligated” beard are finally over…
In May 2014, Star Wars fans found the photo above accompanying the much-anticipated press release that announced the cast for the next installment of the Star Wars franchise. The photograph depicted the first table read that included film’s new cast in a read along with original Star Wars film legends Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.
Yesterday, Hamill spoke out about his ‘The Force Awakens’ script read and confirmed that even though his film character didn’t have any dialog at all, he actually had more to say than anyone else during rehearsals.
A fan going by the name of (Alex Gasperi) on Twitter asked Hamill whether or not it was awkward sitting at the script read for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Hamill, being the nice guy that he is, answered that tweet:
JJ unexpectedly asked me to read #Ep7 script aloud so (ironically) I spoke more than anyone! #NotSoSilentSkywalker https://t.co/aJouGRZJ65
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) July 3, 2016
Although, Hamill had no dialog in “The Force Awakens”, the actor is expected to play a bigger role in Star Wars: Episode VIII, as the Resistance continues to battle the evil First Order led by Supreme Leader Snoke and Kylo Ren. Rest assured that Episode VIII director Rian Johnson hopes that J.J. Abrams’ ending of the film, that included no Luke Skywalker dialog, will end up paying-off BIG…
Also, Mark shared a new photo on Twitter where he was holding a book up entitled “Darth Vader and Son”. In the photo, it looks like Hamill may be back without something that was ‘contractually obligated’. Has anyone noticed that he’s hiding his face/beard?
Me & #HaMILLIE LOVE Jeffrey Brown's great #DarthVaderAndSon Deluxe Box Set! Lost name of who sent it #THANKS #DMMe pic.twitter.com/aRTztloWrt
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) July 3, 2016
You can definitely see that the beard is gone. As Mark revealed 2 days ago, Episode VIII is expected to wrap principal photography on July 22. That’s 18 days away. This could mean two things. Either Mark has already wrapped filming, or he may appear in Episode VIII at some point without the beard. If you remember something similar happened during TFA. Mark shaved his beard 3 days before the end of principal photography. This time though the period is much bigger.
This also rises another question. What if there are reshoots? And there most certainly will be. Of course the time for reshoots is too far away and Mark can always grow his beard up again. So, yes, the beard watch continues. 🙂
What do you think? Will it be cool to see Luke appearing at the end of Episode VIII without the beard in all his glory as Master Jedi? Or maybe Mark has just finished his scenes 18 days before the end of principal photography? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Damn!! I saw this earlier and totally missed the lack of THE BEARD.
Mark shaving his beard off means that Luke has dieded.
truly a shaky premise, well done.
Either that, or he said “FUCK YO CONTRACTS” and shaved his beard, leading to the inevitable decision to edit Mark out of the film and replace him with greenscreened Jack Nicholson.
Do they have to take Jack’s trademark sunglasses out in post?
he cut off his beard even after filming that one scene in episode VII….
Mark doing the table read wasn’t a rumor. This was discussed in some of the behind the scenes footage from the Blu-Ray release.
Yep, right here: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/04/star-wars-force-awakens-jj-abrams-mark-hamill-table-read
that’s no blu ray extra…
he read the ENTIRE script loud?
Aside from the other actor’s lines, yes.
Oh I see.
It fits on the back of an enveloppe
We cannot say the same about your stupidity.
Re: “read the ENTIRE script loud?”
Doesn’t say – might’ve read it *quietly*. 😉
Yes, this has been known for a while: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/04/star-wars-force-awakens-jj-abrams-mark-hamill-table-read
Check the second half.
– Pomojema
Yes, I read it all. I wasn’t referring to the headline, merely the part that i mentioned, which was the table read.
that was said in the blu ray extras…
At the end of Episode 8, Rey tracks down Luke once again, only this time she hands him a razor.
He happily accepts it.
Roll end credits.
And in the third one, she hands him a comb?
Noo..a microphone
https://youtu.be/uD51cdLbZJc
My bet is that it’s not the full beard gone. He’s probably trimmed it to a goatee or something for the end of the film. Hence why he’s hiding it.
Good point, hadn’t considered that. Not impossible that they might change things up with some cleaner facial hair.
“What if there are reshoots?” No, as opposed as what Disney may have us believe, reshoots are NOT normal. Pickup shoots, like George did for the PT, involving just minor scenes, or details, are.
Yeah…. they probably should have done re-shoots for PT. 😉
Blocked for baiting and attempting to rile up folks 😉
No worries Bossman, I’m a Prequel appreciater, and I found the comment humorous. One thing that can’t be denied about the Prequels is the fact that the acting wasn’t the best (due to extensive blue screen, poor dialogue writing, and probably a poor choice of takes).
Lot of movies have extensive bluescreen and still good acting.
And those movies usually have better dialogue, as well as a better choice of takes, like he said. Also likely better acting directors then George Lucas, who really doesn’t understand the process of an actor, as Harrison Ford has alluded to not so subtly many times before…
The better choice of takes is pure speculation, based on nothing I have seen.
As for the dialogue, yes it is bad, but notice how Ewan and Liam always made it work. Ford, too.
To be fair, Liam, Ewan, and Ford are some of the best actors in the business…
Yes, but if you are being paid as an actor, you don’t have an excuse. You find a way to make it work.
While that is true, in this case, the director, George Lucas, found the acting of everyone involved passable by his standards, which were the only standards that mattered during the filming of the prequels.
And as a paid actor myself, I understand doing your best to make it work. But that can be incredibly, painfully difficult if you’re receiving little to no direction or input from your director. Yes, truly great actors can make it work, but even their work will be vastly improved from a director that actually has a vision and understands the processes an actor goes through and how to convey what they want from the actor.
George will certainly be the first to tell you that he is not an actor’s director. Regardless, some actors found a way to shine and some didn’t. But blaming greenscreen is not a viable excuse.
Absolutely. “It’s teh suck becuz green screen” is lazy bullshit. The Empty Space is worth a read by anyone interested in why actors who actually care about their craft don’t need to have deMille-style epic sets just to give a good performance. The same is true of digital sets – it necessitates a director with a strong vision and also more rehearsal time than most studios are willing to pay for on a tent-pole film, but there’s nothing inherent in the approach that means the film will suck.
Glad you saw the funny side dude… I’m a prequel appreciator too. I think the movies were fantastic feats of technical wizardry, and hey… it’s star wars 😉
Reshoots are normal for most big films. And he’ll be told in enough advance time to get the beard to the length it needs to be. For example if the reshoots are next spring, he knows when to start growing the beard it to get to the length he needs. Things were reshoot for EP7, including parts of Poe’s scene with Kylo Ren. Reshoots and pick-ups are used interchangebly to mean the same thing and it could be a mix of both.
Pickups and inserts are normal. “Reshoots” are a different animal altogether though. Either the term is being applied incorrectly here, or these films are being rushed into production without solid scripts, just in order to make a release date, and scheduling ‘reshoots’ in the hopes that whatever failings they have can be fixed sometime later. That’s a poopy way to make a movie.
No, it’s the correct way to make one. From script to film to the editing room, the movie changes drastically. Sometimes you have to go back to enhance what you suddenly and unexpectedly have,
He has a point. If they’re rushing things, and I doubt anyone can deny that they aren’t to some degree, it is a way to make a poopy movie.
However, he complains about everything and anything. It’s why he’s here. To start arguments and to hopefully feel superior to other people because he’s a capable writer.
Just ignore his posts, your brain will feel better for it.
Oh do shut up, AI – nobody gives a rats ass what you think.
Skin still as thin as ever Cranky. I’ve missed the satisfaction I receive from stoking your ire. It’s a shame it gets boring so quickly; it really doesn’t take much to get you wound up.
Simple things, like stating the truth about your behavior just makes your self-vaunted intellect shatter into so many delicate pieces.
P.S. I did find it awfully amusing that you believed I was visiting these threads under different handles just to annoy you.
Watching you accuse other people of being me because they upset you with an opinion contrary to yours proved exactly how threatened you are by me.
On a Star Wars fan site comment section!
Oh your poor, diminutive ego. Go on, try to get yourself some up votes to make yourself feel better.
It’s really not though – you may find something you didn’t know you had as you start assembling the movie, but starting without a solid script generally results in weak movies (just look at AoU for a recent example). It’s in fact part of the problem Lucas had with the prequels – he didn’t really know what he wanted when he started, but figured he’d fix it all in editing and with pickups later. It worked on SW, but that’s probably because he wasn’t actually sculpting the film in post, they were more editing it down from the bloated mess he actually shot.
This ↑↑↑↑↑
They’re definitely normal for all Disney films including all Marvel movies and Star Wars movies and are budgeted for.
What people ignore is that while pickups/reshoots ARE normal, they are meticulously planned and the people involved are contractually obligated to schedule their other projects (signed after the contract) around them. So when the director, in an effort to deflect from the report says “Oh boy, these reshoots are so uber tough bro because we have to get all these actors together, omg bro” it’s the biggest red flag. Because that is NOT how it works… unless the reshoots are much bigger than you expected and the actors you contractually obligated to be there had already scheduled everything around those reshoot obligations as dictated by their contracts and suddenly you dropped EXTRA time in their lap.
scheduling shoots… that is what I can’t successfully do with my classmates and doesn’t allow me to shoot my films
That’s really interesting. So I imagine if reshoots are scheduled, this would be factored into an actor’s pay for the movie. But when they are unexpected, would that mean the actors get paid more?
Wrong.
Imagine how much better the Prequel Trilogy would have been with reshoots, then.
Say 90-100% of what he created with each film.
Lucas DID schedule extensive reshoots and pickups. That’s part of why those movies don’t work – because he had completed principle photography and a first edit, then realized he didn’t actually have a movie, and so went back and tried to craft all of the stuff he hadn’t written in the first place to fill in the blanks. Sure, I guess it’s POSSIBLE to pull it off, but that’s starting out with one arm tied behind your back so…why?
It’s a very nice response to a comment laced in complete sarcasm. +1
“Mark Hamill might not had any speaking lines in The Force Awakens, but it appears he had a much larger part than anyone else during the table read.”
Yes, because THAT’S where it counted! ;B
Not really news. Anyone who watched the extras on the blu-ray knows this.
Read the second half.
– Pomojema
Mark Hamill was shocked at the script, he thought this was a joke and Kasdan would then bring the real one, but no, that’s the movie they made.
I was shocked at your comment, I thought it was a joke, but then I realized you were PlatinumStar, so that makes perfect sense.
Biggest dissapointment in all of Star Wars. After 30+ years, we get a new movie and the central character of the original trilogy is in it for a minute and doesn’t have any lines.
It would be completely understandable that he would have thought it was a joke.
“central character of the original trilogy”
The reason is right there. This is a new trilogy.
My only complaint is that we won’t get to see Han and Luke together again.
It doesn’t look like he shaved his beard. Look closely at the photo, it looks like he has a well-trimmed beard.
Goatee! EVIL LUKE CONFIRMED! EPISODE 8 IS TEH MIRROR MIRROR UNIVERSE!!!!
Only Star Wars could make me click on an article titled “Mark Hamill Loses His Contractually Obligated Beard.”
I regret nothing.
Not many actors can rock a beard but I like him with it. Shame he feels differently.
zOMG Snark said something positive.
Wow, what a bunch of crap about nothing. We are all now dumber for having read that. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul
problem you have?
I really hope that this trilogy isn’t just about killing the first three actors and moving forward with anyone who can be played by someone in a mask. I really just don’t want Luke to be killed off–basically, can’t you guys just make him a teacher or something, give him a job while the kids play? So far, this movie looks like a complete mess–the creatures on board the ship look horrid, the car chase scene looks bad enough to be part of a much lower budget production. The tree is a hackneyed concept and has already been done. I’m really losing faith in this film. And Force Awakens really doesn’t stand up to multiple viewings…worried.
i watched TFA more than 5 times.. its pretty awesome for multiple viewings
That’s a pretty huge conclusion based off an out of context pictures of a set, but you do you!
the car chase scene……….. “looks bad enough to be part of a much lower budget production” How can you surmise this from a few behind the scenes photos? Have you any idea how movies are made? Most on-set pictures look rubbish until they are filmed from the right angle, lit properly, and had the special effects added. I can tell you one thing right now, I may not know whether Episode VIII will be good or not, but the production values will be absolutely top-notch. Do you honestly think that after spending billions on securing the rights to this franchise, Disney are now going to scrimp on making the film and that the car chase scene is going to look like its part of a lower budget production? You haven’t even seen one single frame from this scene yet.
He looked way better with the beard.
Should have kept it.
The table read info wasn’t official? It came from J.J.?!
What would be more official?
There is a table read featurette on the blu-ray that talks about how Mark narrated the read through. Watch your special features lol
We’ve edited the article to fix the table read quote.
I think a shorter beard would be better. Like the one he had when wandering the streets dressed in Stormtrooper gear a while back. That was a good look.
Not sure if anyone still follows this thread but… I just saw a new picture of Mark & he still has the beard, it’s just a bit shorter.
He still has it, it’s just not as massive and should be easy to grow back.. I saw photos of him at the wrap party that were posted far more recently.. it’s more trimmed down.