In the latest issue of Empire Magazine (via The Direct), Rian Johnson looked back at the time when he was arguing with Mark Hamill regarding the direction that he is taking on Luke Skywalker in the film and how they would disagree with it from time to time.
“I mean… It was also ultimately… To the point where I… I’m choosing my words carefully, not to be diplomatic, but I don’t want to frame Mark’s experience of this through my lens because there’s no possible way I can ever put myself in the shoes of Mark, or Carrie [Fisher], having lived their entire lives being known as these characters,” Johnson candidly said.
“And what it’s like to play them first in their twenties, and then to come back and play them in these movies and have a script handed to you saying, ‘Well, it’s this now’… I can never fathom what that experience is like. It’s impossible.”
Despite their disagreements, Johnson still respects the actor and understands some of the objections that he made considering that it’s a character that he has played since the late ’70s.
“If Mark Hamill is talking to me about Luke Skywalker, I’m gonna listen to him, and I gotta think about that and argue with him and go back and forth. And genuinely plumb the depths of my soul and what I wrote and figure out if this seems right,” Johnson continued.
“Also, though, remembering that, obviously, he created the character on screen, but he’s Mark Hamill, he’s not literally Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker lives as a creation on that screen. He’s a myth. And as such, he only really lives in the minds of people who listen to and in various ways believe that myth. And I know that was me. So, it’s complicated. But I mean, the short answer to your question is, it was f*****g terrifying.”
At the end of the day, despite Hamill’s disagreements with Johnson’s creative direction on the character, he still committed himself to serving the director’s vision and doing the best version that he possibly can.
“For all the back and forth, on day one of shooting, Mark said, ‘Okay, this is the vision that you’re going for, and I’m going to do the best version of that I possibly can.’,” the director concluded.
Hamill has been candid in the past regarding his disagreements on the direction that Johnson did for his character in The Last Jedi so it is not surprising that they had several arguments during the making of the film. Despite their differences, it looks like they were able to settle it and found a way to work with each other throughout production.
Also Read: Star Wars Director Rian Johnson Is More Proud Of The Last Jedi Than Ever
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is available to stream on Disney+.
