While 1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back features cinema’s most shocking and memorable reveal about fathers and sons, behind the scenes, a different father and son story was playing out. Mark Hamill’s first child with wife Marilou York, his son Nathan, was born while he was shooting the movie. Now the actor has taken to social media to reveal the true story behind his son’s birth during Empire Strikes Back filming. Check it out:
Mark Hamill must have come across this erroneous story about his son's birth from The Jedi Council account online and decided to set the record straight. According to Mark Hamill (and he would know), his son Nathan Hamill was not in fact born in the morning before he shot the scene where he fell from Cloud City after the battle with Darth Vader.
Luke Skywalker did look tired during that scene, and maybe it was just acting or maybe Mark Hamill was actually tired. But if he was, it wasn’t because his son was born that very morning. Mark Hamill took to Twitter to clear this up, appropriately starting with “Actually” before revealing the true story, which is that it was a scene on Hoth that followed the birth of Mark Hamill’s son.
According to the Luke Skywalker actor, he was originally given the day off for the birth of his son, but was called nine hours after Nathan’s birth to come in for one shot. That shot was for a scene in the Battle of Hoth against an AT-AT. Mark Hamill was in front of a green screen and had to dive in to some fake snow. So a presumably tired Mark Hamill had to leave his newborn son to go play in some snow for Empire Strikes Back.
It was not without consequences though, because while they seemingly got the shot on Hoth (it’s in the movie), the actor apparently sprained his thumb, delaying filming of the lightsaber duel. You need to have working thumbs to wield such a weapon, but he could probably still hold his kid, so it doesn’t sound like it was too bad.
I’m guessing, with the multiple champagne bottles in the image Mark Hamill tweeted, that this was a celebration for the actor upon the birth of his son. Along with the true story of his son’s birth during the filming of The Empire Strikes Back, it provides some cool insight into the behind-the-scenes making of what is often considered the best Star Wars movie.
Mark Hamill’s kids may be all grown up now, but he’s still telling stories with Luke Skywalker on the big screen. You can see him return as the Jedi master in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters on December 20. He can also be heard as Chucky in Child’s Play, which is now playing.
Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to prep for all the biggest movies still coming this summer.
