Mark Hamill, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” franchise, first met Carrie Fisher aka Princess Leia when he was 24 year old in London and they have good friends ever since. In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, the actor penned an emotional tribute to Fisher, who passed away last week due to a heart attack.
“Carrie and I occupied a unique area in each other’s lives. It was like we were in a garage band together that somehow hit it huge. We had no idea the impact Star Wars would have on the world,” opened Hamill.
Hamill also detailed his first meeting with the then 19-year-old Fisher, saying:
“You know, she was 19 years old at the time. I was a worldly 24. So I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, it’ll be like working with a high school kid.’ But I was just bowled over. I mean she was just so instantly ingratiating and funny and outspoken. She had a way of just being so brutally candid. I’d just met her but it was like talking to a person you’d known for ten years. She was telling me stuff about her stepfather, about her mom, about Eddie Fisher — it was just harrowing in its detail. I kept thinking, ‘Should I know this?’ I mean, I wouldn’t have shared that with somebody that I had trusted for years and years and years. But she was the opposite. She just sucked you into her world.”
He also added that he loved making her laugh and would do crazy things to amuse her on set. “Making her laugh was always a badge of honour,” he said.
“I’m grateful that we stayed friends and got to have this second act with the new movies. I think it was reassuring to her that I was there, the same person, that she could trust me, as critical as we could sometimes be with each other,” he explained.
Lastly, although Fisher can be “a handful” and “high maintenance” at times, Hamill said that his life would have been “so much drabber and less interesting” without his onscreen sister and real life best friend.
Fans will get to see the Hamill and Fisher on the big screen soon as it was reported that Fisher finished filming “Star Wars: Episode VIII”, which is slated for release on 15th December 2017, prior to her death.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Rant, Page Six.
