Sam Brigger
speaker
1,127 appearances
24 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 6 Jun
Sam Brigger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
He also appeared in Mike Flanagan's Netflix horror series The Fall of the House of Usher as a lawyer and fixer named Arthur Pym. Let's start with a clip from The Life of Chuck. Here Albie is going over his grandson Chuck's math homework. Chuck lives with him since his parents died in a car accident. Chuck's good at math, but his passion is dancing, and Albie's about to give him some tough love.
You have art in you. That's a scene with Mark Hamill, our guest in the new movie, The Life of Chuck. Mark Hamill, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you, Sam. So you've worked with Mike Flanagan before. Did he come to you asking you to play this role? What did he tell you about it?
The movie itself might be indescribable, but one thing that is describable is the mustache you have in this movie, which is like a Wilford Brimley, soup-straining, walrus kind of mustache. So is that yours? Did you grow that thing?
But that's okay. We just listened to this clip. And what the listeners aren't seeing is how the speech is going over with the young Chuck. And his eyes are as big as saucers. I mean, it's a nice speech you're making, but you're basically kind of crushing his dreams. You're like, don't be a dancer. Be an accountant.
Well, I was wondering, did you ever get that version of that speech when you were young and full of acting ambitions?
So you were doing research on the people.
As you said, you were the middle child of seven. Your father was a career officer in the Navy, a captain. You were born in Oakland, but you moved around a lot, right?
You were that deliberate about it?
Yeah. Well, you've said before that you were really like a clown as a kid. Was that like getting trying to get people to laugh all the time? Was that a way to break the ice as the perpetual new kid?
Sometimes before other people can.
So that sort of the laughter that you would get being the clown, did that translate in some ways to your interest in acting?
Mark, I thought we would start this part of the conversation with a cameo you did on The Simpsons. You're appearing. I think it's a comic convention. You come out of a spaceship dressed like Luke Skywalker, and with a lightsaber, you knock over a bunch of cardboard cutouts of stormtroopers and also Wonder Woman for some reason. Let's hear the clip.
Well, let's use this as a segue to talk about being Luke Skywalker a little bit. I think when you auditioned for Star Wars, you came in and didn't know what you were auditioning for, and you auditioned both for Carrie and Star Wars at the same time. Is that true?
Let's take another break here. If you're just joining us, our guest is Mark Hamill. His new movie is The Life of Chuck. He'll be back after a short break. I'm Sam Brigger, and this is Fresh Air.
Let's get back to my conversation with actor Mark Hamill. His newest movie is The Life of Chuck, in which he plays a kind but haunted grandfather. The movie was adapted from a story by Stephen King. Hamill has done a lot of work both as a live action actor and a voice actor for animated projects. He is, of course, best known as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.
Well, it's interesting to me that you – reading the script, you knew that it was something special. Because back then, you know, sci-fi was – I mean I think it's fair to say like not super reputable. Like they were low-budget genre movies mostly. But you could sort of tell it was something special. Oh, yeah.
Well, I think we should hear a scene from the movie. This is from the beginning of the film when you're on the desert planet Tatooine. You're living with your uncle and your aunt who are moisture farmers, and they've just bought these two droids that you mentioned, C-3PO and R2-D2. And as thrilling as it sounds to be a moisture farmer, you're dreaming of a different kind of life.
So, you know, I imagine as an actor that an important part of your job and something that helps you do your job is like the feedback you receive from other actors in the scene, like from their energy, from their expressions, like you probably work off of each other. But for you, some of your most famous dramatic moments.
scenes in these star wars movies you're acting opposite a puppet and even though you know it's frank oz great puppet master like was that difficult was it difficult to like stay in the moment when you're expressing yourself to yoda who is not a real person of course look frank oz is so good and
So during the research for this, I read an interview with you from People magazine from 1981 when you were anticipating the release of the final – movie in the series, The Return of the Jedi. And speaking for yourself, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, you said that once the movie comes out, quote, we'll be grown up and free.
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