The Force is with him.
Mark Hamill got emotional when he revealed the heartbreaking way he found out about his “Star Wars” cast mate Carrie Fisher’s death.
Over the weekend, while Hamill, 72, was attending the Fan Expo Chicago at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, he told the crowd that he heard about Fisher’s death from his wife, Marilou York. The couple have been married since 1978 and share three adult children.
“My wife came into the bedroom – she gets up earlier than I do – I was still asleep,” Hamill said during his panel “Mark Hamill Live.”
“She had tears rolling down her face saying that Carrie had …” he continued, trailing off.
The “Star Wars” actor said that Fisher’s death, “forever altered how I reacted to ‘Star Wars’ in general. The heart was gone. I don’t talk about it because I don’t like reliving it.”
Fisher died at age 60 in 2016, after suffering a heart attack aboard a plane. Her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died the next day from a stroke at age 84.
Fisher was survived by her daughter, actress Billie Lourd, 32, who attended Fisher’s posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame along with Hamill in May 2023.
Hamill starred as Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” franchise, opposite Fisher, who starred as his sister, Princess Leia.
The two were in the original “Star Wars” trilogy together, which began in 1977 with “Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope.” Decades later, they continued appearing in a sequel trilogy, beginning in 2015 with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
At the event in Chicago, Hamill said, “I thought that it was effortless feminism to have the Princess be far from a shrinking violet. She was tough, she was telling Darth Vader off to his face. She was not intimidated by Darth Vader in the slightest.”
In 2023, Hamill told Esquire about his relationship with Fisher, “We could be as loving and supportive as possible, then we could have big arguments and say, ‘Well, I never want to speak to you again,’ and not speak for six months. But every time you came back, you picked up right where you left off. We had a connection that is special.”
In an interview with Variety in May 2023 before Fisher’s posthumous Walk of Fame ceremony, Hamill recalled what it was like meeting Fisher for the first time, when he was 24 and she was 19.
“I was completely unprepared for the person I met, who just was overwhelming, in the sense that she seemed so much wiser than her years,” Hamill said.
“Very funny, very spontaneous, very witty.”
During the ceremony, Hamill shared more of his thoughts about Fisher to the crowd.
He said, “Was she a handful? Was she high maintenance? No doubt. But every thing would’ve been so much drabber and less interesting if she hadn’t been the friend that she was. I’ll never stop missing her, but I’m so thankful we had her as long as we did.”
He added, “I’m grateful for the laughter, the wisdom, the kindness, and even the bratty, self indulgent crap my beloved space twin drove me crazy with through the years. So thank you, Carrie. I love you.”
