Mark Hamill Is Still Grieving Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher’s death at the end of December shook the world, as the Star Wars actress was one of the most popular personalities in pop culture history. Less than a month after her passing, Carrie Fisher’s family and those that worked with her over the years are still deep in mourning and trying to process her death, something was clearly evident during a recent Mark Hamill interview.
Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will both always be associated with the Star Wars universe, as they played Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, respectively, and they are set to share the screen again together as the characters in Star Wars: Episode 8, which is due out at the end of this year.
Because of his experiences and friendship with Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill still can’t bring himself to face the fact that she’s gone. So much so that during a recent interview Hamill confessed that he hasn’t been able to watch the touching HBO documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds, which celebrated the relationship between the mother and daughter, who died within a day of each other.
Mark Hamill made this admission when Yahoo Movies! recently sat down to talk with him about his new show Pop Culture Quest. During this discussion the interviewer mentioned to the legendary actor, “I just watched the HBO documentary about [Carrie Fisher] and Debbie Reynolds.” This immediately provoked Mark Hamill to interject with,
“Oh, yeah, I’m not ready.”
Later in the interview, after telling a delightful story about Carrie Fisher purchasing cutouts of the seven dwarves from Snow White in London without any regard for how she might get them home or where she could display them, Mark Hamill then heartbreakingly added,
“You know I still think of her very much in present tense. It’s hard to accept that she’s not with us anymore.”
Mark Hamill then went on to discuss how Carrie Fisher’s death means that a shadow will now unfortunately always hang over the future release of Star Wars: Episode 8. Especially since it has ruined his admittedly selfish plans to spend more time with Fisher during its promotion, as he went on to describe the writer, comedian, actress, and all-round delight as being “so much fun to be with.” Hamill continued,
“It’s sort of cast a pall on — I mean, I thought, Episode VIII will have an air of melancholy about it that it doesn’t need or deserve. And I thought, selfishly, I just wanted her around because she was so much fun to be with.”
While obviously still grieving the passing of his old friend, Mark Hamill was still able to look at Carrie Fisher’s death with a level of hindsight. Mark Hamill admitted that he was grateful to have reunited with Carrie Fisher on The Force Awakens and Episode 8, revealing that they were immediately able to rekindle their friendship, even though they hadn’t seen each other for quite some time.
Mark Hamill noted,
“Now, there were long gaps where I didn’t see her for years. As I told Billie [Lourd], her daughter, if it weren’t for us going back and doing the new films, I would have been robbed of getting back with her and reestablishing contact. Because, I mean, we’d talk on the phone or my wife would go over and get charity items signed. But as often happens with friends, you must know yourself, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get together!’ You say that and years go by. But in this case, we were able to get back together. And I think she found it comforting, because I was a constant in the fact that I didn’t really change and she could rely on me and she could confide in me.”
We’ll get to see Carrie Fisher’s final performance as Princess Leia, as well as Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker, when Star Wars: Episode 8 is released on December 15, 2017. It promises to be a hugely emotional experience.
[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]
