Mark Hamill Sets the Record Straight on A New Hope Blooper
By Kyle Warnke
Even when you’re the son of the Chosen One, there’s still plenty of room for you to make mistakes.
Imagine you’re Luke Skywalker at the end of A New Hope. You’ve been through an emotional rollercoaster the past few hours: you’ve watched close friends die in combat; you almost died yourself at the hands of your as-yet unknown father; and you just singlehandedly saved the Rebellion and beat the bad guys by blowing up the Death Star.
Anybody would be riding a huge wave of adrenaline, which is why it’s understandable that at that point, when Luke Skywalker returned to the Rebel hangar, he suddenly turned back into Mark Hamill and, at the sight of Leia walking up, shouted the wrong name.
That’s the story behind one of the most infamous gaffes from the original Star Wars (and there are quite a few). The story goes that Hamill inadvertently said “Carrie” when Carrie Fisher herself appears onscreen instead of “Leia.”
At least, that’s what many thought had happened. But now the boy from Tatooine wants to set the record straight.
On Twitter, Hamill responded to a fan’s question about the scene, saying that for one thing, the line was dubbed over in post-production (as is normally the case in movies in scenes like that). For another, he was actually in the process of saying “There she is,” only he was cut off when Carrie embraced him.
TOTAL BS! Actually said "There she..." as in "There she is." Dialogue in that scene was dubbed. In-jokes disallowed! https://t.co/nWLmsLsgpw
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) October 13, 2015
Believable? Absolutely. It really is tough to tell exactly what Hamill says in that scene, whether you try turning the volume up or just try to lip-read his mouth.
But while it’s understandable if such a mistake made it through, considering the film has such a raggedy, improvised feel to some of its scenes, it does make sense that most of the dialogue in that scene was recorded over because it was probably so noisy on set.
This actually isn’t the first time Hamill has addressed the situation. He made the same claim before, that the dialogue had been dubbed over. But perhaps the rumor will finally go to rest now. Of course, there’s always the chance he’ll do something even worse in The Force Awakens. But luckily, Star Wars fans aren’t obsessive or anything.
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