Before actors in superhero movies were ordered to keep quiet about the script, George Lucas faced a big challenge of keeping things mum about Empire Strikes Back. Mark Hamill has just the story to illustrate this state of affairs, and it has quite the humorous twist.
With the massive success of Star Wars in 1977, movie fans everywhere were excited to learn that it would be the first of a trilogy. The only thing that hindered their excitement, albeit only slightly, was then learning that they would have to wait three years for the next film. However, it only ended up helping to grow the anticipation of it.
(Now, for those who haven’t watched The Empire Strikes Back, just a warning that I will be giving spoilers.)
George Lucas made sure to keep one crucial moment out of the script; that of Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker that he’s his father. The shooting script even intentionally included a red herring — in the printed version of the pivotal scene, Vader claims that Obi-Wan killed Luke’s father. Empire director Irvin Kershner let Hamill — and only Hamill — in on the the truth, though he informed him only just prior to shooting the scene, so that Hamill’s reaction was based on what the evil Darth Vader actually says. Hamill apparently also kept this a secret.
Later, of course, Kershner also had to spill the beans to James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader. Jones was surprised by the plot twist, and at the time even thought it was Vader lying to Luke.
The script was kept very heavily guarded, but fans desperately wanted to know what was going to happen, and they weren’t willing to wait until 1980.
So, as a Star Wars fan, I decided to snoop around old newspaper articles to see whether I could find anything about script reveals before the release of The Empire Strikes Back. I came across an obscure interview with the cast, in which Mark Hamill tells this other great story that I’d never heard before either.
The article was published in October 1978, likely in numerous newspapers, though I found it in the October 28 edition of a Missouri newspaper called the St. Joseph News-Press. That means this is nearly a full two years before the release of the film, and even before the principal photography.
In the interview, Hamill — who obviously plays Luke Skywalker — claims that he received a strange phone call one night from a man with a hushed voice, who offered him $6,500 for his script. Adjusted for inflation, that would be just over $30,000 today.
Even so, it’s significantly less than what Hamill was paid for on the first film, which is reportedly $650,000 plus a small percentage of the profits which, likely resulted in a not-so-small monetary windfall.
Hamill wasn’t about to entertain the mysterious man’s offer, but he decided to have at least a little bit of fun with him, and answered by telling the stranger that he couldn’t sell the script, because he was a man of dignity and owed his allegiance to Lucas. Just before he hung up, however, he told the strange man that he wouldn’t sell his script… for anything less than $100,000, that is. One can imagine Hamill saying such a thing then immediately hanging up, just to amuse himself.
Although there was apparently never a follow-up phone call, there was one thing that later occurred to Hamill. He ultimately believed that the hushed voice on the other end of the phone very likely belonged to George Lucas himself.
This wasn’t necessarily just a prank. It may have been an actual loyalty test; Lucas wanted to see whether his actors could be enticed to sell the script. He apparently got his satisfactory answer with Hamill.
With all the fans impatiently waiting for any information on the film, what if someone involved in the production had actually sold a copy of the script? The big reveal would’ve been that Obi-Wan had killed Vader, which isn’t true. Thus, Lucas’ being protective of the script would have, at least, saved the wrong reveal from ever getting out. Though the leaker, if pressed, could’ve laid the misinformation blame on whoever had sold him the script.
No other actors have ever discussed having such an experience, so it’s unclear whether Hamill was the only one to receive a phone call. Lucas has never been asked about it, as far as I can tell, but perhaps if the story gains popularity, then Lucas will chime in.
Until then, if Hamill receives another phone call with a hushed voice at the end of it, there’s a possibility it would just be me, asking him if this story he told in 1978 is really true, and if it really was Lucas. I suspect he’ll also hang up on me.