“Star Wars” icon Mark Hamill is walking back remarks made in numerous outlets concerning what he saw as a severe misreading of his Luke Skywalker character in the hands of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” writer-director Rian Johnson.
“I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public,” tweeted Hamill, 66. “Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private. All I wanted was to make good movie. I got more than that — Rian Johnson made an all-time GREAT one! #HumbledHamill”
In an interview posted by Vanity Fair magazine in May, Hamill — recalled, “I at one point had to say to Rian, ‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.” Hamill starred in all three original 1977-1983 “Star Wars” movies and had a cameo appearance as his much older self at the end of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015).
Earlier this month, Hamill told the Madrid-based, Spanish-language movie website SensaCine.com, “Luke is very optimistic, very hopeful and full of joy, yet here he is in a very, very dark place, one I did not expect. I told Rian: ‘The Jedi do not give up.’ Even if they have a problem, it may take a year to try to regroup, but if they make a mistake, they would try to fix what is wrong. That is a fundamental difference, and it is not my story, it is someone else’s story. Rian needed it to be a certain way to make the end effective.”
Yet in a video interview for IMDb.com, posted Dec. 13, Hamill appeared to show a change of heart. While stating with a chuckle that he had told Johnson, “I totally disagree with what you think about Luke” and wondered of the character, “What could have happened to this guy that he would wind up — the most hopeful, optimistic guy — now this bitter old cynic?,” the actor also allowed, “I had trouble accepting what he saw for Luke. But again, I mean, I have to say, having seen the movie, I was wrong.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Hamill was one of many entertainers and fans who tweeted tributes to his “Star Wars” co-star Carrie Fisher on the anniversary of her death. “No one’s ever really gone . . .,” he wrote, posting three images: two photos of himself and Fisher, in younger days and more recently, and a beatific illustration of Fisher and her beloved French bulldog, Gary, in the style of stained-glass windows of a church — with the actress-author giving a middle finger. “#AlwaysWithUs #CarrieOnForever,” Hamill wrote.
