Rian Johnson was intimidated by Mark Hamill.
Rian Johnson
The 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' director grew up watching the original 'Star Wars' movies, which feature Mark as Luke Skywalker and admitted that getting the chance to work with the actor left him star struck.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: "I grew up with Luke as my hero, and he meant so much to me, I was a little bit intimidated by Mark. Being thrown into the deep end of the pool in terms of a working relationship with him was great, because when we got on set, we had a shorthand, we had an intimacy. We felt very comfortable together in a way that only going through something like that can buy you. I think he gives a beautiful performance. I'm really excited for folks to see it. He's so good in the movie."
And Rian says he and Mark had in-depth discussions on the character, although they did not always agree.
He said: "Mark's had nearly 30 years now to think in his head what the return of Luke Skywalker would be. First of all, there's no way what I came up with was going to exactly line up with what you expected, but I think what I came up with is one of the things he least expected, which is kind of this Fisher King-type character, someone who had taken himself out of the fight and genuinely believed that the world was better off without what he has to offer. For me, it was the process of talking to Mark about why the character was the way he was, the process of talking him through it and arguing about it and butting heads and then coming together about it. It was a really good process. It was something that a) made me dig into it more myself through having to justify to Mark, to really understand it on a deeper level myself of why it was going to be that way; and b) it just brought us closer."
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