After years of playing Luke Skywalker in the hit franchise “Star Wars,” Mark Hamill is retiring, and he’s got a boatload of stories to tell us about his most memorable characters.
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Mark Hamill Credits Michael Keaton’s Batman Casting As the Reason He Played “Joker”
Mark Hamill may not have stepped in to play the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series” if Michael Keaton hadn’t first auditioned for the caped vigilante and received a backlash as a result.
Speaking to Wired, the “Star Wars” actor revealed that knowing that Michale Keaton successfully auditioned for Batman gave him the confidence to pursue the role of the Joker in the animated series.
“There was this big outcry that Michael Keaton was going to play Batman,” Hamill recalled. “‘Oh, he’s Mr. Mom, he’s a comedy actor.’ I mean they hadn’t even seen him, and they didn’t realize how great he would become. But there was great controversy.”
He continued, “So, when I went in, I thought, ‘You think they’re going to hire Luke Skywalker to play the Joker? The fans will lose their minds!’ I was so sure that I couldn’t be cast, I was completely relaxed.”
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Hamill admitted that performance anxiety can dim a star’s shine during an audition, adding, “Here I knew I couldn’t get the part, so, who cares? And I drove out of the parking lot thinking, ‘That’s the best Joker they’ll ever hear, and it’s too bad they can’t cast me.’” Then, once he got the part, his attitude completely changed. “I was like, ‘Oh no, I can’t do this!’”
Hamill named Joker as one of the characters he was most happy to play. “He’s insane, and because he’s insane, he’s never boring,” he said. “It’s just fun to play a character that creates chaos wherever he goes.”
Hamill had previously opened up during a chat with CBS This Morning’s Tracy Smith that, even though he wouldn’t say never say never to returning as Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” it’s time to close that chapter of his life.
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