Mark Hamill played Luke Skywalker, one of the most iconic heroes in movie history. His latest film, The Life of Chuck, is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella. He spoke to Fresh Air about auditioning for Star Wars, voiceover work, and the advice Carrie Fisher gave him.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Ira Glass of This American Life. Each week on our show, we choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. All right, I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast. Chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you we've just been on a run of really good shows lately. Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too.
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Our guest is actor Mark Hamill. He's in the new movie The Life of Chuck, directed by Mike Flanagan, who adapted the movie from a Stephen King story. Hamill spoke with Fresh Air's managing producer, Sam Brigger. Here's Sam.
You might be surprised to hear that a movie with Stephen King and Mike Flanagan's names attached to it is not a horror movie. Flanagan's best known for horror films... And Stephen King is, well, Stephen King. If it is horror, the life of Chuck is of the existential kind, asking questions like, are the length of our lives predetermined by supernatural forces? Does fate control us?
Are we actually the product of someone else's imagination? Mark Hamill plays Chuck's grandfather, Albie, a hard-drinking accountant, a kind man, but haunted by his secrets.
When you hear Mark Hamill's name, it's hard not to think of an epic story that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, as Hamill played one of the most iconic heroes in movie history, Luke Skywalker in the 1977 film Star Wars, a movie that changed Hollywood and the larger culture. Hamill was Luke in the original trilogy and reprised the role in the last trilogy that began in 2015.
Hamill's other big recurring role, one that he had for three decades, was as a villain. He was the Joker in Batman the Animated Series, part of his long career as a voice actor. He said he would stop doing the voice of the Joker, though, when the actor who played Batman, Kevin Conroy, died in 2022. This is not the first time Hamill has worked with the director of The Life of Chuck.
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.
Some math, math that's called statistics or probability, it could tell you stuff about your future. It could tell you, for example, you're more likely to be drafted by a major league sports team than to make a real living as a dancer. The world loves dancers, it truly does. But it needs accountants, so there's much more demand, so there's much more opportunity.
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