Mark Hamill hasn’t let fame “change” him.
Mark Hamill hasn’t let fame ‘change’ him
The 73-year-old actor had only made a handful of appearances on programmes like The Bill Cosby Show and General Hospital when he was cast as Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars film series alongside Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher but despite the global recognition that came with his success, he has managed to stay the same as he was before.
Speaking on Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist, he said: “I was completely unknown. You just try and reassure yourself that nothing has changed. I haven’t changed, people around me are going nuts.”
The Hollywood star was then asked where his passion for performing came from in the first place, and recalled going to great lengths to watch colour television during his childhood.
He said: “Well, two things stick out. My father said that colour TV was a fad. I remember sneaking around the neighbourhood jumping fences into the backyards of people who I know had colour TVs and watching through the windows.
“I saw a black-and-white King Kong on television when I was probably in early grade school. I thought ‘Somebody goes to work and makes dinosaurs come to life? I want that job!'”
But Mark’s father was not keen on him going into showbiz at all, and tried to encourage him to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and go into medicine instead.
He said: “My dad said I should either join the navy or be like my older brother and go to medical school. My older brother is Dr Hamill, the success of the family.
“But I wanted to be in the business of make-believe, the escapism business.”
