Reddit AMA Recap: Mark Hamill talks up his Simpsons guest spot

 

Recently, the great Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Regular Show) took part in a Reddit AMA and not surprisingly it was a lot of fun. It’s easy to forget that Mark really has two distinct sides to his brilliant career, that of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy and that of being one of the premier voice actors of our time having done shit for every animated show on TV including Robot Chicken, Regular Show, and most notably as the “Joker” for the best in animated Batman. 

So how do you go from Luke to the Joker? Welp, Mark was asked that very same question:

Well I’d heard that they were going to do and the model for the campaigns would be the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 40’s, and I’m a huge animation fan it knew it would be a much more sophisticated version. The gave me the part of Ferris Boyle in the first Mr. Freeze episode “Heart of Ice.” What I loved about it, I thought it was so melancholy and so deep. Paul Dini wrote it and later got nominated for an Emmy. So I did it and I think what happened was that they were surprised what a fan boy I was, and how much I knew about Batman. I asked all these specific questions referencing the early comics.

So when they were doing the Joker auditions I think that played a big part as they asked me to audition. I thought no way would they have the person that played Luke Skywalker cast as the Joker – they are the quintessential extremes of good and evil. So I just assumed they wouldn’t hire me so I went in with no apprehension. And I had been doing Amadeus on Broadway for the year. And so I was experimenting with that laugh for Amadeus and I brought it to the Joker audition and it player really well. And I felt cocky when I left and thought “That’s the best Joker they are every going to hear – too bad they can’t hire me.” And then two weeks later when they called and said I got the job I immediately lost my confidence.

And then my friend told me you’re pretty brave. And I said why is that? And he said I wouldn’t want to follow Jack Nicholson on anything. And then I got even more scared. But fear is a great motivator.

Another Redditor asked if Mark likes playing villains or heroes in his voice roles, and when describing how he ‘tackles’ a character, he mentioned a time when he first read a script for Cartoon Network’s Regular Show where he plays ‘Skips’:

I just hope its a good script. Not that i have a good eye for what’s popular. When i read the first script for The Regular Show i thought it was too weird for young people, it’s surreal. I didn’t think it had a chance but now it’s on its sixth season.

To top it all off, arguably one of the best guest appearances of all-time in the annuls of Simpsons lore is certainly Mark Hamill in ‘Mayored to the Mob’ for The Simpsons. Mark tells us about the guest spot and as it turns out he’s a HUGE Simpsons fan!

It was wonderful, I was such a fanboy, to know all of these characters from the show and then see them in person doing all these voices. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it. On one hand, I wanted to be on the Simpsons, but on the other hand they said I’m playing myself. I became very self conscious. I asked, if I do this, can I play someone besides myself? There’s a good trivia question: in the episode ‘Mayored to the Mob,’ who else do I play besides Mark Hamill?

In terms of length in the number of questions that Redditors have asked in the AMA’s, the one with Mark Hamill ranks right up there. You can check out the rest of the Reddit AMA here and you can see him in his role as the aforementioned ‘Skips’ in a brand-new Regular Show airing Monday Night @ 7: 30 pm EST, check your local listings!