Luke Skywalker is one of the most iconic characters in science fiction and fantasy cinema, brought to life with talent and grit by Mark Hamill. Being his breakthrough role, Skywalker and the Star Wars trilogy have come to define the sci-fi and fantasy landscape in Hollywood.
However, as perfect as the Original Trilogy would seem (and it sort of is), Hamill had his fair share of embarrassments while shooting the first film in the franchise. Hamill has revealed which was the one line that still haunts him to this day, almost 50 years after the film’s release.
Luke Skywalker was a whiny character
Anyone and everyone who knows the character of Luke Skywalker will tell you that he is one whiny person. Even though he was nineteen at the beginning of the trilogy, and could be written off as just expressing his teen angst, the character’s high-pitched complaints about things not going his way were wholly baked into the character from the very start.
However, Mark Hammill decided to take this a step further, by playing the particular character in a certain way. The line in question here is “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters,”, regarding which the actor said:
“I’m going to have to make this as juvenile as I can so there’s room for growth. And I sort of wanted to make it sound like I had four sisters and two brothers when you’d be in the car and they’d say things like, ‘You said we could go to the mall.’ So I wanted to give that flavour.”
Hamill is a professional, understanding every aspect of his character and performing it to perfection. But this particular line haunts the actor so much, that he has gone to call the line irritating even for the time.
Mark Hamill called the line ‘cringe-inducing’
Hamill is a versatile actor, but he is also very aware of the choices that he is making and how they might reflect on the audience. The actor has given multiple interviews, sharing his views on choices made for his character by writers and directors, those he would agree with and those not. However, when it comes to the line mentioned, Hamill had some choice words to say:
“It was cringe-inducing even at the time. But I explained to George [Lucas] what I just said to you, and he said, ‘Yeah, okay, do it.’ Little did I know that it would haunt me for decades.”
When Luke uttered those lines in New Hope, it might not be a character-establishing moment, but it did reveal a lot about the character. In that line, it became evident that despite being a teenager, what Luke craved above everything else was leaving his boring life behind.
He wanted to have fun, and what teenager doesn’t, but his thirst for adventure for Luke Skywalker was plastered across the screen. He might have been whiny, but he was the son of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. How could he ever spend his life without a little adventure?
