Mark Hamill has revealed his first reaction to George Lucas' Star Wars script. It's hard for modern viewers to believe, but Star Wars was originally seen as something of a gamble for Fox. Nobody was quite sure what to make of George Lucas' strange story, which Mark Hamill described as a fairy-tale pretending to be science-fiction.

Speaking on the iHeart podcast, Mark Hamill has revealed his own reaction when he was given dialogue for the audition. It wasn't exactly complementary, and led him to turn to ask Harrison Ford - who he was auditioning alongside - whether this was for real.

"I read the one scene and you couldn't make heads or tails out of it. I said to Harrison, who I tested with, I said 'You were in American Graffiti. You know, George, is this like a comedy or a send up, like a spoof or... it just it can't be serious, right?' He said, 'Hey, you know whatever, let's just get it done.' There's no help, no help at all. I said to George, 'Is this sort of like a parody? Is it like a send up?'

'Well, let's just do it and we'll talk about it later,' which translates to let's just do it and we'll never talk about it."

It's easy to understand why Hamill was so uncertain. There had never been anything quite like Star Wars; although Lucas lifted a lot of ideas from sci-fi franchises like Flash Gordon and Dune, everything was tied together in such a unique way.

Mark Hamill Was Won Over By Star Wars

He became a believer

Appropriately enough, though, Hamill would become one of Star Wars' greatest champions. In the same interview, he recalls later conversations with the production team in which Hamill was convinced Star Wars would be a hit. The main reason was simple; he sensed this was the kind of story he'd love to watch himself, and he knew the budget was modest. Star Wars didn't need to do particularly well to recoup its budget, even by 1977 standards.

Even Hamill surely never imagined that this would become his definitive, iconic role. He'd still be playing the part of Luke Skywalker nearly 50 years later, whether in movies, TV shows, or voicing the character in LEGO specials. Far from a parody, this redefined the whole genre of science-fiction and fantasy.

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There will never be anything quite so influential as Star Wars

This is the thing about making something that is truly iconic; there's nothing quite like it, so you have no idea what you're dealing with. Star Wars broke so many of the "rules" of the day, and in so doing reshaped the entire genre. It's impossible to imagine what science-fiction and fantasy would be without Star Wars.

This does raise an intriguing question; what is the Star Wars of today? What movie of the present day, so strange and unconventional it looks like a parody, will actually redefine cinema? Only time will tell - but Hamill's reaction to Star Wars proves it could even catch the stars by surprise.

Source: iHeart