If you have a Twitter account and don’t follow Mark Hamill, what’s the point of you even going on the Internet? The legendary Luke Skywalker actor has carved a huge following out of the social media site, often sharing entertaining insight and anecdotes about his early years in acting and his sometimes controversial opinions on the current state of the Star Wars franchise.
Recently, a fan asked the actor about a rumored incident from the set of the original Star Wars film, wherein Hamill blew an eye vessel trying to hold his breath in the trash compactor scene. Ever the storyteller, the actor not only confirmed that he damaged his eye but provided a look into how George Lucas directed the scene:
“I purposely made myself red-faced for a strangulated look, causing a blood vessel in my eye to burst. Afterwards-they had to shoot carefully to hide it until I healed. George told me I should’ve asked him [first] because [with] the lighting and red-filters it made no difference.”
Mark Hamill is a very theatrical person (and I mean that in the best way possible), so it comes as no surprise that he’d go above and beyond while preparing for the trash compactor scene. Though it may not have been filled with actual garbage, pretending to be strangled by an alien creature underwater while Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher screamed in panic around you could not have been an easy feat.
Thanks to Hamill’s help, Luke Skywalker would go on to become of the most intricate and interesting characters over the course of the Star Wars franchise, one that recently met his demise in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Despite death though, the actor’s 100% confirmed to be coming back to the next film, The Rise of Skywalker, though not much is known about his role. And unless he accidentally slips up and spoils the whole thing on Twitter, we’re going to have to wait until it hits theaters December 20th to find out.
