Mark Hamill's talk at Celebration Europe
I've made a start on writing down as much as I can remember of this hour-long session. I'll have to go through the clips that are appearing on the internet, to jog my memory, but I've not had much of a chance to do that yet.
Before Mark came on, they showed a montage of some of his work on the two big screens either side of the stage. Obviously scenes from Star Wars, but the Joker was in there, and they specifically inter-cut scenes from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (although they beeped out a certain word) with Luke's duel with Vader on Cloud City, paralleling the obvious scenes.
There was a lot of noise when Mark arrived on stage, and I don't think the YouTube clips capture the volume of that very well. About a million flashes went off from cameras too. Warwick Davis told us that there'd be time for photos later, but Mark said he'd been told it would be a good idea to walk around the stage to begin with, so people could take photos. So he walked about, standing at each part of the stage to give us all a chance to get a reasonable photo. He was too far way from me, and it was too dark, for me to get a decent photo though.
Throughout the talk, he got quite animated, and got up several times to walk about the stage. He seemed very happy to be there and to talk about both Star Wars and his other projects, and spent a lot of time on every question - going off on different tangents a few times.
My memory is hopeless, so things may not have happened in the order I'm listing them. Nor can I remember Mark's exact words, so I'm just writing down the gist of what he said, with a lot of paraphrasing. Words in inverted commas were, I think, ones he used. It's possible I've misremembered some things - but it'll be close enough. I'll add to it if I remember more.
He started talking about his interest in comics, and why he'd made Comic Book: The Movie. He was telling us he'd once been inspired by a certain series of comics, but then couldn't remember the name. He thought for a while, but had to ask the audience for help. Someone gave him the name, but it wasn't something I'd heard of, and I've now forgotten it again!
He explained how he was a mad comic geek, and had been all his life, and that the film was a demonstration of his love for comics and the comic and convention scene. People had told him beforehand that they hoped he wasn't going to poke fun at their world, and Mark explained how they'd got the wrong end of the stick, and he'd had no intention of doing another 'Trekkies'.
He said that joking about people wearing costumes, and going to cons as their favourite characters, just wasn't part of his sense of humour. He pointed out that he thought it was okay if that kind of thing was someone's sense of humour, but it just wasn't his. So he was trying very hard not to criticize other people's sense of humour, but I think everyone was with him every step of the way on that anyway! After all, we were all con goers, many in costume and many of those that weren't were wishing they were! Underneath it all, it sounded like he was trying to say that anyone who pokes (malicious) fun at other people's passions hasn't got much of a sense of humour, but Mark was too polite to say that outright! I just love the way he is a self-confessed geek, and I love Comic Book: The Movie as well, so it was great to hear him talk about that. He also mentioned how his co-stars were fellow voice actors.
He also talked about The Black Pearl, and how he'd managed to combine the trip to London with lots of meetings with potential backers. He explained how it had been touch and go as to whether he could make the con or not, because his schedule of meetings was very tight, and he never knew what was going to come up next. He was hopeful that he'd found backing to make the film. He gave us some background on what the story was about, and explained that it wouldn't be a suitable film for children to see. It was an adult-themed comic book, and the film would be for adults.
Then there was Family Guy, and he said he'd had a lot of fun doing that. He had a story to tell about that too - namely that he'd offered to also do the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, because the voice-over he'd heard already doing it was awful. Then it turned out that the person who'd voiced Obi-Wan was Seth MacFarlane himself (?) (the creator of Family Guy), so he'd put his foot right in it.
Both Mark and Warwick reminisced about meeting on the set of RotJ. They showed some photos from the set, with a young Warwick, Mark and Mark's son Nathan. Then they showed two scenes from Return of the Ewok - Warwick Davis's own film made when he was eleven. One of the scenes was Mark leaping out backwards from a London theatre, right in the middle of his ESB duel with Vader, and meeting Warwick Davis on the street. Mark said that he'd felt extremely strange wandering about London that day dressed in his Luke outfit. The other scene was the corridor one from the dressing rooms - there was a lot of noise from the audience when Carrie appeared in the metal bikini. I love that little film, and I wish GL would put it out officially on DVD, along with all the deleted scenes cleaned up from the original prints.
Mark talked about filming on Dagobah, and how it was a lonely job, because he was often the only human on the call sheet - along with snakes, iguanas, etc. He explained how difficult it was to film, because all Yoda's dialogue was taking place beneath the wooden platform he was on, and he had to wear a headset (or earpiece) to hear it at all. The headset picked up the local radio station (can't remember if he said it was Radio 1), and he spent half his tine humming a song, which he then sang part of. And annoyingly I can't remember what song it was - but it was funny to hear him sing it. He said that Irvin Kershner (or was it GL?) kind of 'told him off', because he kept moving around as though he was listening to the Rolling Stones (which he was), instead of moving like he was in a swamp on Dagobah. So he had to concentrate extra hard.
At some point we were shown some scenes of Luke and Yoda on Dagobah, during which Warwick Davis disappeared. When he came back, he was dressed as Yoda, with a lightsaber. But then I can't remember what happened. I think he did some lightsaber moves and spoke some of Yoda's lines to Mark.
There were a few questions from the audience. Mark didn't just answer them, he went to town on them, spending quite a long time on each one, which was why we had so few questions asked!
Somebody asked him if he'd ever ready any of the EU novels. He said no, and that it just wasn't his thing. He explained how he didn't want to offend anyone, but anything beyond the three films wasn't something he felt he was a part of. He said he felt very 'possessive' over the character of Luke, which is why he feels the spin-off products are 'not his thing'. He'd been to see the PT once, because he was 'a respectful guy', and he had admiration for the actors etc. in the films. He commented "Aren't I married or something... to someone called ...?" then he hesitated over the name, and someone gave it to him. Then he told us that someone earlier in the day (at a signing) had told him he was dead in the EU. He asked the audience if this was true. It took a while for him to get a direct answer, so he asked it again - 'But am I dead?'. Someone shouted out that it was 200 years in the future, so Mark made the comment "So no matter how well I look after myself, I'm still dead". And that got a very big laugh.
On the EU, someone else told him that his son in the EU was called Ben. Mark responded by telling us his real sons' and daughter's name, pointing out Chelsea in one of the front rows. Then he remarked that the name Ben made sense, to have named him after his mentor. He asked if there was continuity in the EU, and was Ben the son of this marriage to Mara Jade, and someone answered yes.
I think this was tied in to his comments about his 'possessiveness' over Luke (but it could have been at some other point in the talk): he mentioned how Harrison also had his own ideas about the characters, and had been upset because he hated the idea of the Falcon having once belonged to Lando. Mark admitted that this was funny, because why on earth would Harrison get upset over a thing like that, but at the same time he completely understood it, because it was where he was coming from too about his own character.
Not sure if the following was in response to the same question, or a different one (apologies for my terrible memory!):
It turns out that Mark is a fan of the deleted scenes. He thought his character would've been better drawn by having the Tosche scenes in the film. He mentioned Garrick Hagon in a way that suggested they are on friendly terms. Mark thought his character was the only one who didn't have a 'proper introduction', and if they'd been shown the Tosche scenes, then people would have had a greater understanding of what Luke's Tatooine life was like - basically, that he was simply looking for a way off the farm, and had no political leanings (no developed ones anyway) and no real idea of the Empire. Biggs turns up in his 'Imperial uniform' (I think they were Mark's words) and Luke is awed and envious, and it all seems very glamorous and exciting to him.
He also thought that the final scene just before Biggs' death was better in its original form, where Luke is spurred on to fire the torpedoes accurately because he'd seen the death of his friend. But when the Tosche scenes were deleted, Mark said that they dubbed Obi-Wan's voice over the trench scene - 'Use the Force' - to turn that into his impetus to turn off his computer. Mark thought that was wrong, and he gave us a wonderful rendition of a group of World War II (?) fighter pilots witnessing the death of a fellow pilot, 'Charlie', and how this gives them renewed motivation for carrying on towards victory. We got some good voices there, and a lot of running around the stage. When he'd finished, Warwick pointed out that he'd done voices, and Mark responded with 'Did I do voices'?, which got a big laugh.
Mark also pointed out that he didn't think viewers got enough of a look into Luke's sadness at the death of Biggs because of the cut scenes. I wasn't sure if Mark realised they'd put back that short little meeting in the hangar for the Special Editions.
There was a question on films 7, 8 and 9. Someone asked, if GL decided to do the films and asked Mark to be in them, would he agree? Mark answered a slightly different question here, and said he thought the questioner was thinking back to when Star Wars (ANH) was made, and GL asked if he'd be in agreement to making the sequels too. When Mark asked George when they'd be made, George's answer was 2011. Mark defied any of us to imagine being able to commit to something 30 odd years in the future. His whole answer was extremely funny, but it's obvious he has a great deal of affection for GL. He did say, at some point during the talk, about how he didn't always agree with George about his role, but that anything he said so often got taken out of context and misquoted. Can't recall his exact words here, sorry.
Cristian Macht (The Force Among Us) asked about filming in Finse, Norway, because he'd been there in the making of his documentary, and he wondered about Mark's best and worst moments there. Mark replied that they'd never got much further than the hotel car park, and how he and Harrison had had to run around out there in the freezing cold and thick snow while everyone else was toasty warm inside with cups of hot chocolate. He said he'd heard about the glacier, and how blue it was etc., but they'd never made it as far as there.
That's about all I can remember for tonight. I'm still hoping for a longer video clip - but as we weren't allowed to take video, it's unlikely to happen. The organisers will have filmed it though - I'd love to know what will happen to all the footage they shot.
Before Mark came on, they showed a montage of some of his work on the two big screens either side of the stage. Obviously scenes from Star Wars, but the Joker was in there, and they specifically inter-cut scenes from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (although they beeped out a certain word) with Luke's duel with Vader on Cloud City, paralleling the obvious scenes.
There was a lot of noise when Mark arrived on stage, and I don't think the YouTube clips capture the volume of that very well. About a million flashes went off from cameras too. Warwick Davis told us that there'd be time for photos later, but Mark said he'd been told it would be a good idea to walk around the stage to begin with, so people could take photos. So he walked about, standing at each part of the stage to give us all a chance to get a reasonable photo. He was too far way from me, and it was too dark, for me to get a decent photo though.
Throughout the talk, he got quite animated, and got up several times to walk about the stage. He seemed very happy to be there and to talk about both Star Wars and his other projects, and spent a lot of time on every question - going off on different tangents a few times.
My memory is hopeless, so things may not have happened in the order I'm listing them. Nor can I remember Mark's exact words, so I'm just writing down the gist of what he said, with a lot of paraphrasing. Words in inverted commas were, I think, ones he used. It's possible I've misremembered some things - but it'll be close enough. I'll add to it if I remember more.
He started talking about his interest in comics, and why he'd made Comic Book: The Movie. He was telling us he'd once been inspired by a certain series of comics, but then couldn't remember the name. He thought for a while, but had to ask the audience for help. Someone gave him the name, but it wasn't something I'd heard of, and I've now forgotten it again!
He explained how he was a mad comic geek, and had been all his life, and that the film was a demonstration of his love for comics and the comic and convention scene. People had told him beforehand that they hoped he wasn't going to poke fun at their world, and Mark explained how they'd got the wrong end of the stick, and he'd had no intention of doing another 'Trekkies'.
He said that joking about people wearing costumes, and going to cons as their favourite characters, just wasn't part of his sense of humour. He pointed out that he thought it was okay if that kind of thing was someone's sense of humour, but it just wasn't his. So he was trying very hard not to criticize other people's sense of humour, but I think everyone was with him every step of the way on that anyway! After all, we were all con goers, many in costume and many of those that weren't were wishing they were! Underneath it all, it sounded like he was trying to say that anyone who pokes (malicious) fun at other people's passions hasn't got much of a sense of humour, but Mark was too polite to say that outright! I just love the way he is a self-confessed geek, and I love Comic Book: The Movie as well, so it was great to hear him talk about that. He also mentioned how his co-stars were fellow voice actors.
He also talked about The Black Pearl, and how he'd managed to combine the trip to London with lots of meetings with potential backers. He explained how it had been touch and go as to whether he could make the con or not, because his schedule of meetings was very tight, and he never knew what was going to come up next. He was hopeful that he'd found backing to make the film. He gave us some background on what the story was about, and explained that it wouldn't be a suitable film for children to see. It was an adult-themed comic book, and the film would be for adults.
Then there was Family Guy, and he said he'd had a lot of fun doing that. He had a story to tell about that too - namely that he'd offered to also do the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, because the voice-over he'd heard already doing it was awful. Then it turned out that the person who'd voiced Obi-Wan was Seth MacFarlane himself (?) (the creator of Family Guy), so he'd put his foot right in it.
Both Mark and Warwick reminisced about meeting on the set of RotJ. They showed some photos from the set, with a young Warwick, Mark and Mark's son Nathan. Then they showed two scenes from Return of the Ewok - Warwick Davis's own film made when he was eleven. One of the scenes was Mark leaping out backwards from a London theatre, right in the middle of his ESB duel with Vader, and meeting Warwick Davis on the street. Mark said that he'd felt extremely strange wandering about London that day dressed in his Luke outfit. The other scene was the corridor one from the dressing rooms - there was a lot of noise from the audience when Carrie appeared in the metal bikini. I love that little film, and I wish GL would put it out officially on DVD, along with all the deleted scenes cleaned up from the original prints.
Mark talked about filming on Dagobah, and how it was a lonely job, because he was often the only human on the call sheet - along with snakes, iguanas, etc. He explained how difficult it was to film, because all Yoda's dialogue was taking place beneath the wooden platform he was on, and he had to wear a headset (or earpiece) to hear it at all. The headset picked up the local radio station (can't remember if he said it was Radio 1), and he spent half his tine humming a song, which he then sang part of. And annoyingly I can't remember what song it was - but it was funny to hear him sing it. He said that Irvin Kershner (or was it GL?) kind of 'told him off', because he kept moving around as though he was listening to the Rolling Stones (which he was), instead of moving like he was in a swamp on Dagobah. So he had to concentrate extra hard.
At some point we were shown some scenes of Luke and Yoda on Dagobah, during which Warwick Davis disappeared. When he came back, he was dressed as Yoda, with a lightsaber. But then I can't remember what happened. I think he did some lightsaber moves and spoke some of Yoda's lines to Mark.
There were a few questions from the audience. Mark didn't just answer them, he went to town on them, spending quite a long time on each one, which was why we had so few questions asked!
Somebody asked him if he'd ever ready any of the EU novels. He said no, and that it just wasn't his thing. He explained how he didn't want to offend anyone, but anything beyond the three films wasn't something he felt he was a part of. He said he felt very 'possessive' over the character of Luke, which is why he feels the spin-off products are 'not his thing'. He'd been to see the PT once, because he was 'a respectful guy', and he had admiration for the actors etc. in the films. He commented "Aren't I married or something... to someone called ...?" then he hesitated over the name, and someone gave it to him. Then he told us that someone earlier in the day (at a signing) had told him he was dead in the EU. He asked the audience if this was true. It took a while for him to get a direct answer, so he asked it again - 'But am I dead?'. Someone shouted out that it was 200 years in the future, so Mark made the comment "So no matter how well I look after myself, I'm still dead". And that got a very big laugh.
On the EU, someone else told him that his son in the EU was called Ben. Mark responded by telling us his real sons' and daughter's name, pointing out Chelsea in one of the front rows. Then he remarked that the name Ben made sense, to have named him after his mentor. He asked if there was continuity in the EU, and was Ben the son of this marriage to Mara Jade, and someone answered yes.
I think this was tied in to his comments about his 'possessiveness' over Luke (but it could have been at some other point in the talk): he mentioned how Harrison also had his own ideas about the characters, and had been upset because he hated the idea of the Falcon having once belonged to Lando. Mark admitted that this was funny, because why on earth would Harrison get upset over a thing like that, but at the same time he completely understood it, because it was where he was coming from too about his own character.
Not sure if the following was in response to the same question, or a different one (apologies for my terrible memory!):
It turns out that Mark is a fan of the deleted scenes. He thought his character would've been better drawn by having the Tosche scenes in the film. He mentioned Garrick Hagon in a way that suggested they are on friendly terms. Mark thought his character was the only one who didn't have a 'proper introduction', and if they'd been shown the Tosche scenes, then people would have had a greater understanding of what Luke's Tatooine life was like - basically, that he was simply looking for a way off the farm, and had no political leanings (no developed ones anyway) and no real idea of the Empire. Biggs turns up in his 'Imperial uniform' (I think they were Mark's words) and Luke is awed and envious, and it all seems very glamorous and exciting to him.
He also thought that the final scene just before Biggs' death was better in its original form, where Luke is spurred on to fire the torpedoes accurately because he'd seen the death of his friend. But when the Tosche scenes were deleted, Mark said that they dubbed Obi-Wan's voice over the trench scene - 'Use the Force' - to turn that into his impetus to turn off his computer. Mark thought that was wrong, and he gave us a wonderful rendition of a group of World War II (?) fighter pilots witnessing the death of a fellow pilot, 'Charlie', and how this gives them renewed motivation for carrying on towards victory. We got some good voices there, and a lot of running around the stage. When he'd finished, Warwick pointed out that he'd done voices, and Mark responded with 'Did I do voices'?, which got a big laugh.
Mark also pointed out that he didn't think viewers got enough of a look into Luke's sadness at the death of Biggs because of the cut scenes. I wasn't sure if Mark realised they'd put back that short little meeting in the hangar for the Special Editions.
There was a question on films 7, 8 and 9. Someone asked, if GL decided to do the films and asked Mark to be in them, would he agree? Mark answered a slightly different question here, and said he thought the questioner was thinking back to when Star Wars (ANH) was made, and GL asked if he'd be in agreement to making the sequels too. When Mark asked George when they'd be made, George's answer was 2011. Mark defied any of us to imagine being able to commit to something 30 odd years in the future. His whole answer was extremely funny, but it's obvious he has a great deal of affection for GL. He did say, at some point during the talk, about how he didn't always agree with George about his role, but that anything he said so often got taken out of context and misquoted. Can't recall his exact words here, sorry.
Cristian Macht (The Force Among Us) asked about filming in Finse, Norway, because he'd been there in the making of his documentary, and he wondered about Mark's best and worst moments there. Mark replied that they'd never got much further than the hotel car park, and how he and Harrison had had to run around out there in the freezing cold and thick snow while everyone else was toasty warm inside with cups of hot chocolate. He said he'd heard about the glacier, and how blue it was etc., but they'd never made it as far as there.
That's about all I can remember for tonight. I'm still hoping for a longer video clip - but as we weren't allowed to take video, it's unlikely to happen. The organisers will have filmed it though - I'd love to know what will happen to all the footage they shot.