I've always liked Mark Hamill

As a person, I guess— as much as you can like anyone as a person when you only know them through their public image. It's funny, though. I'm not really a Star Wars fan. I honestly don't think he was that good in the original trilogy.

But despite a bit of an aversion to Luke Skywalker and all associated properties, I've always liked Mark Hamill the man. I started developing an affection for him when I realized he was the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, one of the most formative of all my artistic influences. I found him to be full of character and charismatic in a way I never did in Star Wars. But beyond that, he just seems... decent. People never have anything but nice things to say about him as a person and as a collaborator. He really loves his wife of forty years and has three seemingly well-adjusted kids. He presents himself in the media as kind, concerned about others and the world. He sounds funny, clever, charming. But most of all, I really like how grateful he is for the life he's had.

I've always found it fascinating the way he's reacted to his career journey. I think, if I were him... I would not have. I think I would have been much more disappointed, and embittered by that disappointment. Starring in Star Wars, he must at once point have thought that he was going to be the crown prince of Hollywood. But instead he got typecast, overlooked, and shunted aside into increasingly smaller and less prestigious roles. He got to the point where he was basically doing B-movies— and cartoon voices for TV, back when there wasn't even the small amount of respect it gets now. By the time he matured into a legitimately good actor, he was basically too old for leading man roles. But it had to have galled a little— particularly when you consider Harrison Ford, who went on, basically, to be crowned King Movie Star. In the same year as The Force Awakens came out, I saw him voice a weird evil troll called Dictatious. Can you imagine Ford deigning to do that? No, because he never had to.

Hamill— like Ford and Fisher —did got through a period where he was resentful of Star Wars and wanted to leave it behind. But nowadays the only word for him is grateful— he's happy for having a chance to live the actor dream, to have been part of so many people's cultural fabric, to have made a mark on history, to have so many people who love the work he's done. He honors how the vision of Luke Skywalker has grown and changed with time and zeitgeist. He is happy for his achievements, his success, his loving family. He genuinely does not seem bitter of how his career turned out, and I admire him for that.

I admire him not least because, honestly— I don't think I would be, if I were him. I don't know if I'd ever be able to let go of that corrosive core of bitterness over never getting to outgrow one role (an important but immature one, it has to be said) and found myself relegated to lower eschelons of the craft. Particularly if I had a Harrison Ford who achieved everything beyond it I never could. It's not a great quality, but if I regard myself honestly I think that's how I would feel. So the fact that Mark Hamill doesn't seem to let that eat him up is very impressive to me. It's still a quality I'm figuring out how to manage, so maybe I ought to look to those who have done it better than me.