Mark Hamill is a Star Wars legend, but he’s also one of the best Joker actors. Turns out he’s also a bit of a joker in real life, too, as a story emerged from behind the scenes of the first Star Wars movie where Hamill managed to get his phone number read out in the film.
In his role as Luke Skywalker, Hamill changed the face of the science fiction movie genre forever. The iconic Jedi led the Rebellion‘s fight against Emperor Palpatine and the Galactic Empire – with the help of Han Solo and Princess Leia, of course.
Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, who played Solo in the Star Wars cast, are good friends still to this day, but they had their moments on set. One story from a book about the making of Star Wars [via comic book editor Jordan D. White] revealed how Hamill threw a bit of a tantrum over Ford stealing one of his ideas.
In the book, Hamill said: “Then of course, there is that famous fight between me and Harrison. In the scene where we are trying to get out of the garbage masher, I was supposed to say ‘Threepio, open the…’ and give this long serial number. So I had planned all along to say my [own] phone number…[and it] would be forever preserved on film.”
“But the way the scene was blocked on the day of, I wasn’t near the door – so Harrison got to say the line and he started doing his number and that really burned me up. I said to him, ‘Come on, say mine, I thought of it.’ But he kept doing his own and I got madder,” Hamill continued.
He got his own way in the end, but not without a dig from Ford: “Finally, Harrison read my number and said ‘Happy now, you big baby?’ And I laughed, because I felt busted… I’d been acting like a two-year-old.”
Due to the phone number being in the film, it was later immortalised on the bins in the Star Wars section of Disneyland as a fun, little Easter egg. To continue your education on a galaxy far, far away, check out our guides to Star Wars characters like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Yoda.
While you’re here, take a look at all we know about the new Star Wars movies, or broaden your horizons with our guide to the best movies of all time, and all the new movies coming this year.