Mark Interviews 2000+

Mark Hamill Strikes Back

What did you know about Kevin Smith before you signed up for Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back?

I knew that I was harboring two of the biggest Kevin Smith fans in the world in my sons Nathan and Griffin. They were huge, passionate Kevin Smith fans, and I knew him more for his comic books than the movies at first. The first time Nathan showed me Clerks, he said, 'Dad, you gotta just watch this one moment,' and to me it's one of my favorite moments in Kevin's film, where in just off-handed dialogue the guy says to the other guy, 'So what do you think -- on the Death Star -- was that independent contractors or did they do in-house?' Like two homemakers would consider putting up shutters on their house. There's something so funny about that kind of literal interpretation of what was meant to be a fantasy. It's so ludicrous and yet it's very smart, and I felt this was very good-natured, despite all of the things going on and the language and so forth.

Tell us about your first meeting with him -- how the idea was presented to be in this film.

Well, in actual fact, my wife said to me at the dinner table, 'Oh, Kevin Smith called. He wants you to be in this new movie,' and the boys just hit the roof. I said to her later, 'That put me in a really bad position, 'cause now if I don't do it, I'll be kicked out of the house basically.' Because they said, 'You know, if you don't do this movie, you ought to go over and at least do some light yardwork, you know, clip the hedges and mow the lawn." But I said, 'Oh well, good, what's it called?' And the production company said, 'Well, it's called Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back,' and I went, 'Uh-oh,' because there's lots of stuff I wanna do, but I have to be mindful that there's a certain legacy. It's not like I think it's important to be reverential about it, but there are so many people -- I call them UPF's -- the ultra-passionate fan that knows everything, they know 10 times more about those movies than I do, and I wanna be really respectful of that. I don't want George Lucas to be upset. I want him to be happy. I say, 'Please, reassure me that Lucas' people read the script and they know what goes on.' And Smith's people said, 'Yes, as a matter of fact the only complaints George had,' -- I went, 'Uh-oh, here we go,' -- 'were to make sure that we made the blades of the lightsabers not conflict with the colors that he would use in his movie.' I said, 'All the pot smoking and saying the f-word 500,000 times doesn't bother him at all?' 'Not at all. Just make sure you don't make that blue, red or pink or whatever the colors are.' That's what he was mindful of. Spoken like a true auteur.

Who do you play in this movie?

Well, there must have been a typo. I thought I was playing Clock-Knocker. Everyone tells me it's something different. I said, 'Now, see, I have to have my own back story.' This is the story that the audience won't necessarily be aware of, but it's what the actor needs to be able to go out and do what we're supposed to do, and I figured, here's a guy that really missed the boat. He was, you know, a Shakespearean actor. He had aspirations to do great things on Broadway and perhaps do a David Kelly series. Instead, he's a villain in this ridiculous comic book movie, so already he's sort of slumming. And into his world come Jay and Silent Bob -- you know, they bring new definition to the term moron -- and they rock his world. I thought I should take myself really seriously so my humiliation can be complete. But it was hard, I tell you, because every time I looked at these guys... (laughs)

There's something really funny to me about live-action versions of comic books just by their nature -- what you will accept on the printed page as opposed to grown-ups in spandex. It just somehow doesn't quite compute. It's really fun, and I felt this is as close to a villain on Batman as I'll ever get. They built us a cave, the blunt cave, and the blunt mobile, the blunt sabers. We just laughed nonstop, and I was really sorry to see it end because I bonded with everybody.

When you signed up, did you know Carrie Fisher was also in the movie?

I did.

Have you stayed in touch at all with Carrie over the years?

Yeah.

Have you talked to her since this movie?

No, we haven't. You know, this happens time and again, you form these relationships and surrogate families that get broken up over and over and over again. I come from a military family, and that was just par for the course. You know, you make your friends and you get into clubs and you get transferred. So maybe I have a built-in system to sort of avoid that emotional turmoil. You have to understand that the chances of you seeing each other consistently over the years is very slim. I haven't seen anyone from those movies in years.

Well, who would have thought that Kevin Smith would be responsible for bringing back two-thirds of the lead players from the STAR WARS trilogy?

Yeah, we had no idea. Too bad Harrison (Ford) got cut out. I mean, 'Sorry, gotta lose ya.' I'm kidding of course.

What's on tap for you now?

I'm just sort of all over the place in terms of what I'm doing now. I'm working on a computer game version of my comic book, The Black Pearl, which I also want to make into a feature film. Every Friday at 9 o'clock I want every kid in America to watch Time Squad on Cartoon Network with Pamela Segall and Rob Paulson. It's one of my favorite jobs -- I know, I'm a grown-up, I shouldn't get so much enjoyment out of making cartoons, but I do; I love it. You get to do these ridiculous things that I would never do on camera. For the immediate future, I play Pamela Anderson's uncle on V.I.P.. In exchange, I'm going to write and direct an episode of V.I.P.. So I'm taking my little baby steps.

Entertainment Tonight, July 2, 2001