Unearthed Video of Mark Hamill Sharing A Funny Star Wars Memory
A video has been unearthed which shows Mark Hamill on The Johnny Carson Show breaking down over George Lucas’ most interesting dialogue. You’ve got to see this!
Young and riding high after beginning his rise to fame, actor Mark Hamill appeared on The Johnny Carson Show back in the late 1970’s . The episode began with Carson talking about the galaxy far, far away…. and how successful and fun the film was. Then suddenly, Hamill starts talking about a line of dialog that he says he’ll never forget.
“I remember that there was one line that I just begged him to take out of the screenplay, and he finally did,” Hamill said on a 1977 edition of The Tonight Show, recently rediscovered by The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog.
“Boy, I’ll never forget it as long as I live. I sometimes dream about this line.”
Well, the line that in particular was written by legendary director George Lucas for his blockbuster smash hit movie. Apparently this original line of dialog was to appear in the scene when Han Solo was trying to convince Luke Skywalker that they’d be better off turning back.
“But we can’t turn back! Fear is their greatest defense, I doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae
or Sullust, what there is is most likely targeted towards a large scale assault.”
“And I thought, ‘who talks like this George?’” Hamill recalled. “This is really not fair, because you know we’re the ones who are gonna get vegetables thrown at us. Not you!”
For the record, most of the dialogue in the original trilogy feels fairly natural and there were actually some decent (though corny) jokes thrown in that work very well. The combination was similar in the prequel trilogy but it didn’t seem to mesh very well. In an interview years ago, Harrison Ford claimed that he once told George Lucas “George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can’t say it”. Honestly, none of that really matters, because the original films ended up being iconic regardless.
For those of you who are not so easily swayed about George’s writing ability, may I direct your attention to this bit of dialog (written by none other than George Lucas himself).
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: [as Obi-Wan finds him and ignites lightsaber] I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, but now I am the master.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: Only a master of evil dies.
[fights Vader]
Darth Vader: Your powers are weak, old man.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
[fights more]
Darth Vader: You should not have come back.
[fights more]
Anyhow, give the entire video a good watch, its a fantastic little bit of history. Also, for some reason I seem to remember Hamill saying the exact same bit of dialog – in this video at 3:43 – a few years back, word for word. Hmmmmm!
Mark Hamill will return as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi on December 15th….
Source: RadioTimes
He has always been hilarious and great at telling anecdotes
I always said it. Star wars original trilogy was good Despite George, not thanks to him
It would not exist without him.
And you’ve always been wrong.
I love how little knowledge of film beyond Star Wars most fans have.
|George Lucas would never have been ALLOWED to make Star Wars if he hadn’t already proven he was an exceptional talent as a director and creative force with THX-1138 and American Graffiti, which remains on numerous critics lists as one of the greatest films of the 20th Century. The people who insist that their disappointment in the prequels somehow retroactively changes history and makes Lucas inconsequential to his own legacy are bitter, ignorant, and out of their minds.
You are aware that people can lose their talents as they age, right? George Lucas got old and became even more of a hack.
That’s silly.
Spot on mlk81.
“The Johnny Carson Show” ?!?!!?
No, “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”
Damn young people….. 😉
This is the actual line that Mark is talking about.
“But we can’t turn back! Fear is their greatest defense, I
doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae
or Sullust, what there is is most likely targeted towards a large scale
assault.”
thanks, I updated it. 🙂
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: Only a master of evil dies
I thought it was Only a master of evil, Darth. Am I missing something?
Typo? Or someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about?
The first script was re-written by Katz and Huyck anyway so without researching earlier drafts it’s harder to say whose lines were whose, at least when you are talking about an article that claims to be “for the record,”
It’s Darth
Mark is one of the greatest people alive. I hope no one takes him for granted
Aren’t those just the lines from the sides from the actual casting call that Hamill was in? You can see a good bit of that anywhere from the Blu-Rays to Youtube – not sure what’s new about the story? Or am I missing something?
If only there was footage of Obi-Wan messin with the jawa! I’d rather have that scene in the special edition.
“It’s made $191,000,000 in the United States in under 6 months” WOW.
And I think that was the time when you could enter the cinemas and watch the same 2 movies again and again and again all the evening.
Mark is so much more likable now as an adult than he was a young man. Watching any of his interviews in the 70s and 80s is kind of torturous and embarrassing.
I think he came off as charming and energetic, as per usual. Perhaps a bit overenthusiastic, but wouldn’t you be if you were Luke Skywalker in the 70’s?
Mark upstaged Johnny right there. That last part, good.
Wait… Amy Carter has an original stormtrooper helmet?!
peanut sack?
“…We don´t need to know why they are bad!”
Since that statement we have gone so far… 😀
“Who talks like this, George?” Indeed…
Back in the mid-seventies, Lucas was not such a huge icon that he could not be challenged, and the age difference between him and his actors was also not so great, so that they would feel able to treat him as more of an equal.
But when Hayden Christensen had to deal with Mr. Bigshot Industry Legend George Lucas, now silverhaired, he just didn’t have the stature to tell him: “George, get real, NOBODY says ‘I’m haunted by that kiss you should never have given me, I pray that kiss will not become a scar’, or even ‘I hate sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere’!”
The poor unfortunate actor just had to actually put his lips around these lines and try to make them work. Mission impossible.
And yes, HE was the one people were throwing tomatoes at afterwards, metaphorically speaking.