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Mark Hamill may not have ever had to train on a swamp planet or pilot a swift-moving spacecraft, but that doesn’t mean he and Luke Skywalker are all that different. The Jedi’s transformation from the original “Star Wars” to “Return of the Jedi” provided audiences with years of rich entertainment, but what it meant for Hamill is more personal.
In a 1988 interview with Hamill from the Lucasfilm Fan Club (via Star Wars News Net), the actor is asked if his own personal growth coincided with that of his sci-fi screen persona. Hamill answers, “Well, I think one of [George Lucas’] greatest strengths is picking people that are so close to what he wants in his characters that he doesn’t really think it had to do a lot of major overhauling.”
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Recognizing the coming-of-age influence that the “American Graffiti” director imbued into the space saga, Hamill continues, “I guess ‘Star Wars’ was unique in the sense that I had the opportunity to do three movies in the same storyline that covered that much time in actual chronological years. It’s like watching a kid grow up on television … just as Luke grew throughout the films, so did I.” Luke may not have approved of Hamill voicing so many villains, but the actor’s commitment to his iconic role remains even decades later, as is evident in his disputes over Luke’s role in 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (via AV Club).
