Spoiler alert: this article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Mark Hamill’s appearance at the Cambridge Union on Saturday began and ended with the same idea: the notion of being drafted.

For the 64-year-old actor, one of seven children whose father had been in the US Navy and travelled around the world during Hamill’s childhood, it seemed as though a call of duty had at various points in his life deprived him of some stability.

During this “schizophrenic existence”, which included attending nine schools in twelve years and left him feeling “always [like] the new kid”, Hamill spoke of a growing fascination with films, theatre and comic books. 

The “court jester” of the family, he described putting on magic shows for his siblings and, later being “mesmerised” when watching the original black and white King Kong on television. He was amazed by the fact that – and this was whispered for effect – “there are grown-ups whose job it is to go to work and make Donald Duck cartoons!”

A growing fascination with show-business, which he “didn’t know how to get into”, led to him to research the Marx Brothers, reading old reviews of their shows on Broadway on microfiche.

“You had to get into school or you’d get drafted”

After graduating from high school, the military draft for the Vietnam War threatened to put a stop to this burgeoning dramatic interest.

He recalled that “It was the year of Vietnam, so you had to get into school or you’d get drafted, and I knew I’d make a terrible soldier. And of course, we had no idea why we were there, why we were fighting.” 

Bearing his political colours, Hamill, who has donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, added: "I thought, one good thing about this war is that we’ll never make that mistake again! We’ll never go into other cultures and force our ideology on them.”

His enrolment at Los Angeles City College was therefore a pragmatic decision for the young actor who just wanted to follow the Marx Brothers’ footsteps in New York City. Hamill reminded the audience that LACC by law had to accept applicants if they were native residents of California, even if they were convicted felons: “Eight dollars and a pen and you’re in!”

Hamill spoke of his frustration balancing his fledging acting career with the requirements of studying, and how he could not drop below a certain number of units in college unless he wanted to leave, at which point he would have to enter the military.

He reflected on the nature of acting more widely, saying that “You’re in for a lifetime of rejection and unemployment. And it’s a really, really tough life!”

Eschewing his parents’ calls to finish college so he had something to fall back on – Hamill declared that he thought that “there’s something exciting about living without a net!” – the actor spoke of how, from 1971 until he got his break in Star Wars, he went through a variety of roles on TV.

These included an appearance on The Bill Cosby Show – during which, Hamill insisted, “He was very nice and offered me no drinks whatsoever” – a nine-month run on General Hospital, an enjoyable time on the Texas Wheelers opposite Gary Busey, whom he noted “seemed so authentic”, and “five or six TV movies.” While he protested his hatred for soap operas, his advice to young actors was “if they’re going to pay you to do it, do it!”

A long time ago… with some unruly dialogue

He then came to the beginning of his first step into a larger role: how his involvement in Star Wars came to pass.

He described the film as having been talked about as “something like Flash Gordon”. He professed his love of American Graffiti, the film Lucas directed prior to Star Wars, calling it “one of his favourite comedies”, and also noting that he “loved science fiction and fantasy.”

Hamill also set the record straight on the role Robert Englund, who would go on to play Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, played in getting him the role of the character originally known as Luke Starkiller.

He said: “Over the years, the story’s developed to the point at which he got me the part. I love Bob, but every actor in the world will tell you about the jobs available once they’re sure they’ve been rejected."

Of the auditions for Star Wars, for which George Lucas teamed up with Brian De Palma, who was casting for the adaptation of the Stephen King novel Carrie at the time, Hamill noted that: “George never talked … When I left, they said, ‘What was George Lucas like?' Was George Lucas in there? I thought Brian was there with his assistant. Oh, you mean the guy who didn’t speak? ‘That was George.’”

While he spoke highly of others actors who were auditioning for the roles of Luke and Han Solo, including William Katt and Kurt Russell, Hamill weighed in on Lucas’ infamously unwieldy and impenetrable dialogue.

He mentioned one particular line which was “in the screenplay [but] never wound up in the movie, and yet I’ve never forgotten it.” It was the line: “But we can’t turn back—fear is their greatest defence. I doubt if the actual security there is much greater than on Appalyer-Sullust and what there is is most likely directed towards a large scale assault.”

Hamill reflected that “I could understand it intellectually… but try saying it conversationally!”

“So much of the magic was on that page”

He also spoke of his shock when he received the full script and found out that he, not Harrison Ford, was the star (no pun intended) of the show: “Hang on. I don’t think that Harrison was playing Luke Starkiller. I think that was me!”

Hamill was, however, fulsome in his praise of the script itself, saying that “it didn’t have the John Williams music yet, it didn’t have the fantastic editing or the art direction, or the performances, but so much of that magic was on that page.”

He attributed much of the film’s success, as George Lucas has, to the fantasy underpinnings of the script, despite its technological and alien aesthetic. 

“This thing was the biggest gamble in the world. This was funny, which was unlike most science fiction. Usually science fiction is very serious, you know, 2001, Star Trek. Star Trek is really real science fiction, because it’s from the perspective of earthlings. This is a galaxy far, far away. This is fantasy.”

Hamill even conceived of an alternative audience for the film, even if it lacked commercial success: “If this tanks at the box office,” he observed, “I bet you anything they’ll love it at midnight showings… pot-smoking college kids would love this.”

He spoke of his amazement and incredulity at both the quality of the film, that translated from Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork to the sets in Pinewood and Tunisia, and the opportunity to work alongside Sir Alec Guinness, whom Hamill claimed eventually slapped him for addressing him as Sir Alec, telling the young actor, “I want to be known by my name, not my accolade!”

He recalled telling himself: “I can’t believe I’m here. You’d be in the cockpit, you’d think. Keep in the thought bubble. Sitting there is one of the most acclaimed actors of the twentieth century. Multiple Oscar nominee. Won an Oscar. And to my right, a guy who’s over seven feet tall and dressed in a monkey costume who’s flying the spaceship!”, adding that “I had to do everything I could not to just burst out laughing.”

Hamill recalled how he “loved this thing” and “didn’t care if anybody else did”, going on to say that on set “we were just having the time of our lives, and I really think that comes through.” He expressed his affection for “Harry and Carrison”, an spoonerism for the actors portraying Han Solo and Princess Leia that he calls them because the “blend is right” for him.

His appreciation for the film, and for how much it means to people, perhaps fed into his apprehension in returning to the franchise for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released 32 years after the final chapter of the original trilogy, 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

He described returning to Star Wars as being like “going back into the white heat of the sun”, adding: “I’m not saying I considered turning it down, but I was really frightened on a scale I hadn’t had in many years, since I was on Broadway in a struggling show.”

At this point, Hamill returned to the notion he evoked at the beginning of his talk: being drafted.

“It’s not even like a choice. I realised, it’s like I’ve been drafted, because if I said no, not only would people hate my guts — I’m talking about the UPFs [ultra-passionate fans] — they’d be outside my house with torches like in those old Frankenstein movies, except lightsabers instead of torches!”

On the return of the 'legacy cast' to the new trilogy, particularly that of Harrison Ford, Hamill said: “When Harrison said he was coming back, I thought [snaps fingers]: he finally got his martyr’s death! He was trying to be bumped off since Empire. That’s why they froze him, so he could make up his mind. If he doesn’t come back, he stays frozen. No-one wants a Hansicle.”

Concerning his limited involvement in the film, he told the audience that: “I’m reading the script and everybody’s talking about me. I read the first line and it said, ‘Luke Skywalker has disappeared,’ and I thought, this ought to be good!”

After his dramatic entrance at the film’s conclusion, which left Daisy Ridley’s Rey offering Skywalker his own lightsaber, Hamill said: “It’s kind of worrisome, after all the John Williams music, it’s all downhill from there! I’ll never be able to top that.”

His talk ended, however, with an apt comparison between the Star Wars films and those they now reside with under the eaves of Lucasfilm’s new owners.

“Much like the Disney animated films, you can’t pinpoint them in time. There’s not cars that give away what era they were made in or hairstyles or clothing that might look old-fashioned in ten or fifteen years’ later. And you know, you’d have to be a really cynical person not to enjoy the fact that it has given joy to so many people. They’re optimistic films. They’re about believing in yourself and helping others. It sounds cornball when you start breaking them down, but it’s all that good stuff that young people should see.”

He highlighted the circumstances in which the films were made at the end of the the 1970s and early 1980s, adding: “Remember when they were made, the prevailing hero was the disgruntled returning Vietnam war vet who returned home to find his farm house burned to the ground and his wife raped. It was Rambo and all that stuff. And George was smart, because he thought, ‘I don’t want to make this science fiction, where they come from earth. He wanted to figure out a way to make a movie where there are clear protagonists and clear antagonists.”

“Each film reflects the sensibility of who’s in charge”

After the event, Hamill spoke to Varsity about what he thought the directors of each of the five Star Wars films he has worked on brought to the franchise.

He argued that “each film reflects the sensibility of whoever’s in charge there,” adding that the difference was “subtle, but they all have different approaches”.

Hamill said that George Lucas, the series’ creator (who has no involvement with the new trilogy), “doesn’t like to talk about motivation,” adding that he was “convinced that he [Lucas] cast people so close to his vision that he doesn’t really have to do a lot of character direction.”

He said that Irvin Kirshner, who directed 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, was the “opposite”: “He was a very spiritual man, which is why I think Empire was such a good film for him”.

Hamill said he “adored” Richard Marquand, director of 1983’s Return of the Jedi, adding that: “He was just the nicest guy in the world, a great sense of humour. Much more outgoing than the other two.”

Of J.J. Abrams, The Force Awakens’ director, Hamill said that he “didn’t get to work with [him] as much as I might like to” but that he has “an enthusiasm that’s second to none, which is very infectious. He loves what he’s doing.”

Talking about Rian Johnson, who is currently directing Episode VIII, due for release on 15th December 2017, he said: “And Rian… I think every one of his films is different from the other. The Brothers Bloom is different from Brick, which is different from Looper, and I think he’s incredible versatile, and an incredibly nice guy.”

During the Q&A after the talk, Hamill signed people’s lightsabers, declared that Star Wars was unlikely to surpass Shakespeare, and said he wish he’d found voice-acting sooner.

After the event, he tweeted that the event felt “less like an audience than friends in my living room”, that the “love was palpable” and that he “didn’t want to leave”.