Still as divisive and polarising as it was when it arrived over six months ago, the aftermath of The Last Jedi continues. Talking to IGN, via MSN, Hamill contemplates the differences between the twenty-something Luke Skywalker we last saw in Return of the Jedi and the much older, seasoned man we got to know in The Last Jedi.
“There’s just such a huge gap between ‘Return of the Jedi’ and ‘Force Awakens’ – I had to really contemplate that.
“I said, ‘Hey, how did I go from being the most optimistic, positive character to this cranky, suicidal man who wants people to get off his island?’. It was a radical change, but I think sometimes being pushed out of your comfort zone is a good thing.
“Although a part of me said to Rian, ‘But you know, a Jedi would never give up’. My concept of the character was that even if I chose the new Hitler thinking he was the New Hope, yeah I’d feel terrible, but I wouldn’t secrete myself on an island and then turn off the Force.”
“I’m not a method actor, but one of the techniques a method actor will use is to try and use real-life experiences to relate to whatever fictional scenario he’s involved in. The only thing I could think of, given the screenplay that I read, was that I was of the Beatles generation – ‘All You Need Is Love’, ‘peace and love’.
“I thought at that time, when I was a teenager: ‘By the time we get in power, there will be no more war, there will be no racial discrimination, and pot will be legal.’ So I’m one for three. When you think about it, [my generation is] a failure. The world is unquestionably worse now than it was then.”