Game News Video Games Reviews & News
Related Articles
Luke Skywalker didn’t just magically appear on that island in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (opens in new tab). Mark Hamill has to put the hours in for those Ahch-To scenes in, especially when it came to filming Star Wars: The Last Jedi. (opens in new tab) As it turns out, as revealed in an interview with our sister publication SFX magazine (opens in new tab), he also had to do a fair amount of walking up inclines and cliffsides – with the added safety of having a mountain guide to stop him meeting a steep, untimely end.
Subscribe: Sign up for a monthly subscription to SFX magazine (opens in new tab) and get news and interviews on all the biggest sci-fi entertainment delivered straight to your mailbox and/or mobile device.
“When I first read the script, I thought they’d do it on green screen,” Hamill says. Not so, as he reveals: “Then they said they wanted to go to a real location…”
The Ahch-To scenes were filmed on the peak of Irish island Skellig Michael, which involved a fair amount of walking up steps and it was a killer on the legs for Hamill: “I said ‘How long are you allowing the crew to get up the hill.’ They said, ‘45 minutes.’ I said, ‘Give me an hour and a half.’ I had to stop every 100 steps because they’re not normal steps – they’re stone, and it’s up and up and it never ends.”
It could have been a killer for Hamill, too, if he wasn’t careful. Thankfully, a helping hand was provided as everyone went (way) above and beyond whilst filming, as Hamill explains, “They had this big mountain climber guide behind me to catch me in case I stumbled and fell. If I fall off the cliff and die, the insurance would go crazy – let’s face it, I’m an investment!”
For more tales of Mark Hamill’s trails on Ahch-To, be sure to pick up the latest issue of SFX magazine (opens in new tab) or subscribe (opens in new tab) so you never miss an issue.
