'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': BB-8 Is A Practical Effect; Mark Hamill Hated His Beard
Lucky for us, Mark Hamill has a lot of other things going on besides returning to Star Wars. It means there's plenty of opportunities to ask him about Star Wars! The actor recently completed shooting on J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens and gushed about how it made him feel to see such a huge reaction to the first trailer. Now, in yet another interview, Luke Skywalker himself talked about how he did not like growing a beard for the new film but how much he loved playing with the new droid BB-8. And yes, that droid is a practical effect.
He also talked about being hesitant to come back and surprised at Harrison Ford's enthusiasm. There are really some great quotes here, so check them out below.
Hamill said all this in an interview with Yahoo Movies. Primarily, he's promoting his part in the new stop-motion Elf special but, it's Luke Skywalker for crying out loud. Here are a few excerpts:
On the beard he grew for The Force Awakens:
That is what I call my contractually obligated beard. Listen: I think they look fine on other people. It's just not me. I mean, I never got used to it. But face foliage is almost a part of the costume. And it does bring a gravitas, perhaps unearned, but nevertheless, it makes a statement that they wanted to make, and I'm more than happy to oblige them.
On the focus of this new movie:
This is about the new generation of characters; I think that's the most important thing. It's the opening act of a whole new approach to the storytelling. So I never thought that the stories would be – first of all, I never thought I'd be involved in it again, period. And then when George [Lucas] said that they wanted to do more, I rightly assumed that it wouldn't be our story, because we had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This must be our offspring and the current generation, with us there lending the kind of support that Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness did in the original. So no, [the trailer focusing on new characters] didn't surprise me. And I mean, I'm one of those people where I just think, "Keep me out of it. I'll ruin it, I'm sure!" [Laughs] I'll show up and just ruin the whole thing.
On being a little surprised Harrison Ford came back:
Well, you know, he was someone that was unpredictable. I hadn't seen him in years; I didn't know what his feelings were. I know he's sometimes grown impatient with people that don't want to focus on what he's doing currently and want to go stroll down memory lane. God knows, I'm used to that sort of thing. But who knew? And for him to jump back in so enthusiastically, I was delighted. It's a wonderful character. Everybody loves Han Solo.
On the joy of discovering the Ball Droid, later revealed to be called BB-8:
They never cease to amaze me with what they're able to come up with, you know? I said, "How are you ever gonna top R2-D2, the most adorable droid in movie history?" And then they have this new one. I can't even tell you his name, but you saw it in the trailer. And when they were demonstrating how they did this thing, live on set — because it's not CGI, that's a live prop — I was just amazed. They let me play around with it. [Laughs] I was running it all around at the creature shop up in Pinewood. I'm telling you, it's an absolute delight. And not having thought that I'd ever go back there, to go back into that world, is just – I get the chills. It's just so much fun.
For more Hamill Star Wars talk, head over to Yahoo Movies. For now, what did you think of these quotes?