How The Actors Found Out They Were Cast In Star Wars

Every actor understands the huge significance of being cast in a Star Wars movie. But how do movie stars actually react when they learn they’re going to play in the world’s most famous franchise? Here’s how these Star Wars actors found out they'd been invited to a galaxy far, far away.

The story of Mark Hamill's casting as Luke Skywalker is often made out to be a typical Hollywood fairy tale, where the penniless actor on the verge of giving up on his dreams lands the audition of a lifetime.

And while Luke Skywalker certainly was the role of a lifetime, Hamill was no penniless actor. In fact, he has taken to Twitter in the past to dispel the myth that he was sleeping on his friend Robert Englund's couch when Englund told him to try for the role. In fact, Hamill not only had his own one-bedroom apartment in Malibu at the time, but his agent had already set up an audition for him. Even back in 1977, Hamill was insistent on how mundane the process really was.

That audition process started in 1975, as a joint casting call with Brian De Palma's supernatural horror flick Carrie. Hamill was called back for a screen test with Harrison Ford in 1976, and the rest is history.

Harrison Ford's Star Wars story actually is a little more of a fairy tale. In 1975, when casting began, Ford hadn't appeared in a film with a theatrical release since Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation in 1974. He'd started working as a carpenter to make extra money, and it was while he was fixing up Coppola's office that he ran into George Lucas, who'd directed Ford in 1973's American Graffiti. Keep watching the video to see how the actors found out they were cast in Star Wars!

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Mark Hamill | 0:15
Harrison Ford | 1:14
Carrie Fisher | 2:11
Natalie Portman | 3:03
Samuel L. Jackson | 3:48
Daisy Ridley | 4:51
John Boyega | 5:37
Oscar Isaac | 6:25
Adam Driver | 7:34
Gwendoline Christie | 8:09
Domhnall Gleeson | 8:59
Felicity Jones | 9:43
Kelly Marie Tran | 10:48
Laura Dern | 11:41