This past summer, CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla uploaded an old video of a young Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford going over some lines for a Star Wars screen test. Hamill shed some light on the footage, explaining that it was his first time meeting Harrison Ford, and that neither actor had yet read the full script to Star Wars. This week, thanks to a promotional video from Omaze, Hamill was forced to react to that very same audition tape in real time, dripping with embarrassment over his Beatles-esque haircut.
With a camera aimed at his adorably cheery face, Hamill watches the original audition tape in chunks, pausing only to cringe and audibly wince in his at his older self delivering clunky dialogue. Obviously, Hamill hadn’t fully grasped Luke Skywalker’s Starkiller’s character yet, nor did he know how to pronounce names in the script (“Why did I call him ‘Hans’ instead of ‘Han?’” he ponders). When he asked George Lucas how to approach the subject, he was told to just wing it.
The wildest part about this video is the fact that Ford, despite being off-camera, still steals the show with his Solo-level of coolness. Still, this is an early audition tape from 1976, and it wouldn’t be until a year later that Hamill found confidence in his acting chops.