Interview with Mark Hamill

When offered the opportunity for a brief chat with Mark Hamill, I jumped at the chance. It's not everyday one gets to speak with an honest-to-goodness Jedi knight. Unfortunately, Star Wars-related questions were off the table as per his publicist's request, but we did get to talk about Mark's return to live-action acting, Sushi Girl, a darkly funny grindhouse thriller that debuted on Blu-ray this week.

The film plays out in a derelict restaurant, with five on-edge gangsters reuniting to suss out an old dispute around a table on which lies the evening's buffet—a motionless, nearly naked woman covered in sushi. Joined by a cast of cult all-stars including Tony Todd (Candyman), Noah Hathaway (The NeverEnding Story), and Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man), Mark plays Crow, a stringy haired oddball with a sense of wit to match his penchant for violence. Read on for a full transcript of our conversation:

Hi Casey.

Hello, Mr. Hamill. It's a real pleasure talking with you. I saw the film earlier this week for the first time, and I thought you absolutely killed it as Crow...

Thanks.

You're scary and funny and unpredictable, all at once.

That's what drew me to the part.

I talked with Kern [director/co-writer] and Destin [co-writer] about the film yesterday, and they told me that you were initially really hesitant about taking on this role, and that it was actually your kids you convinced you to re-read the script and give it a go.

That's true.

Why were you wary at first, and what finally brought you around?

Well, when I initially read it, I thought this was something I'd enjoy seeing in the audience, but—I don't know—it just seemed so extreme to me. Listen, I've been married to a dental hygienist for decades, and the dental mayhem was really hard to get past. It's so violent, and it's just dark. I didn't give it as much thought as when I had my daughter read it—and Griffin, also, my son read it—she was just pointing out to me that I did really well in character parts. Especially on Broadway, when I played Mozart, or I did Harrigan 'n Hart or Room Service. I mean, playing characters where you look in the mirror and don't see yourself, you see a completely different person. Because you can hide behind that. You're liberated because you're not self-conscious about being "Mark" anymore, you're just a completely different character. And she pointed out, my daughter Chelsea said, "Look, I've heard you moan about 'oh, look at all those great parts that Steve Buscemi gets or Philip Seymour Hoffman gets,' and I don't want to hear any more of that if you turn this down." She was pretty adamant about thinking that I should do it. One thing that was really instrumental about changing my mind was re-reading the script but this time trying not to read it as Mark Hamill, but try to read it as Crow, try to read it in character as this low-life thug. That really made a big difference, because to him, the mayhem was enjoyable.



I was going to ask you, you've gone from playing one of the most archetypal heroes ever—I mean, literally, Luke Skywalker is on the cover of Joseph Campbell's A Hero with a Thousand Faces—to taking on many darker, more antagonistic roles. Crow might be your gnarliest villain yet. What was your approach to the character when you really started looking at how you'd play him?

Obviously, you want to go and figure out what's on the page, what do you say, what do other characters say about you, try and find out what that backstory might be. And I thought that Crow was sort of a low-level check-forger and confidence trickster, committing fraud, maybe burglaries and so forth. He probably really flourished when he came under the protective wing of Duke, the Tony Todd character. That's probably why he had such a devotion to that character. Obviously, on something like this you can't really draw from real-life experience, but there were certain character traits from people I've known, like these guys who act like they're in Goodfellas: "Hey, I know a guy who can fix you up, you know what I'm sayin'." I've met a lot of these guys living on the east coast. Believe it or not, even a couple of people I've known in the theater I used as Crow's sense of sardonic humor and his cynical nature.

Kern mentioned Truman Capote as a possible influence, and watching your performance, I can totally see that. I mean, Crow does have this very effeminate quality, and he thinks he's cleverer than everyone else in the room.

Right, exactly, almost desperate to top everybody intellectually. You know, I wasn't really consciously thinking Truman Capote, but I can see that now. It's one of those things where you just have to dive into the deep end of the pool and hoping you don't sink. (Laughs) One of the nice things about this picture was the collaborative nature, that they were allowing me to do so much with the character in terms of his physical appearance, taking on certain improvised moments and lines, even ideas—Kern was very open to them. They all were. I can't praise them highly enough. I think Kern did a terrific job and he's got a great future ahead of him. The whole experience turned out to be one of my favorite. I asked him why he thought of me, because nobody thinks of me for this kind of part, and he said a lot of it had to do with my having played the Joker in the animated Batman.

(Publicist: Can we do last questions, Casey?)

Sure. After doing predominantly voice acting for the past fifteen or so years—which, I assume, can often be just you in an ADR booth performing solo—how was it acting in this almost theater-like ensemble piece? I know you've also done stage plays in the past, so that training must've helped here.

Right, right. I've done seven or eight shows back in New York. I love it. I mean, it's so organic. Working in chronological order really helps the actors, which is not the case in television and movies, where you do things out of sequence. But in this case, because it was predominantly one setting, we were able to start with the arrival of Duke and Crow, and as each character arrived, do it in fairly chronological order. And I just think the cast is tremendous. Andy Mackenzie, James Duval, Noah Hathaway, David Dastmalchian, Courtney Palm—they all brought something very special to their roles, and I don't think there were any overlaps. No one was encroaching on other people's territory. I got a particular kick out of Tony Todd. I think he does just spectacular work in the movie.

Last question. I've read that you spent two years living in Japan—I did too, actually, up in Sendai, a few years ago—what did you make of the film's whole nyotaimori, naked sushi starting point?

Well, it's an interesting hook, and obviously the male audience is going to be intrigued by something that exotic. I didn't know that that existed—I guess it exists in real life. I've never been to a place where that was a possibility, eating sushi off a girl's body. But again, it ups the exotica quotient; that combined with so many genre people—Sonny Chiba and Danny Trejo and Jeff Fahey—that was just an added bonus for people who are genre fans. There's a lot of history with the cast of this movie and I couldn't have been more pleased to be able to work with them.

Well, thank you so much for talking with me. I love your voice acting work and seeing you in Sushi Girl has me really jonesing to see you in more live-action films.

I hope that happens. I hope someone sees it and thinks outside the box when it comes to casting their next degenerate role. (Laughs) Thank you Casey, it was nice talking to you.