Mark Hamill Likes Scaring Halloween Trick-Or-Treaters As Much As The Rest Of Us

Mark Hamill may be best known as playing Jedi Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" franchise created by George Lucas, but he also has an illustrious career in voice acting.

After voicing the Joker in the animated “Batman” series, Hamill has also been the voice for The Hobgoblin in the animated “Spider-Man” series, the Gargoyle in the animated “The Incredible Hulk,” and Master Eraqus in “Kingdom Hearts 3” and “Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.”

Hamill recently signed on to voice a character in Shudder's "Creepshow." Although fans might not immediately peg Hamill as a horror fan, he recently confessed how much he loves spooky season, especially Halloween.

In a recent interview promoting his new voice role, Hamill described that Halloween has “always been a favorite, especially when the kids were small.”

“We always did the traditional carving of the pumpkins,” he explained. “We did three or four so each kid could have their own.  We have the decorations. We love it. It's a wonderful holiday, especially for kids. The trick-or-treaters come and it's always great to see the costumes, a lot of times they come, they're dressed as me from 'Star Wars,' or Princess Leia.”

He continued, “All my life I've loved horror. I discovered the old black-and-white Universal films, they were on television when I was a kid, I loved all of those. Branched out to Hammer films. I loved stop-frame animation, Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien. Like I say, I built the Aurora Monster Model Kits. Up until The Beatles came, that was my life, just horror movies.”

He also went on record stating how much he loves the smaller joys that Halloween provides, like passing out candy.

“I love the trick-or-treaters,” he added. “I have, it's up in the attic, this really creepy Nosferatu, over-the-head mask, and I answered the door with this on my face and to see the four- and five-year-olds just recoil in horror, [my wife] Marilou saying, ‘It's not a good look for you to be scaring these kids,’ so I retired that.”

Hamill explained that when it comes to voice acting, “Visual representation is really important, especially in animation, because sometimes you do do things where you don't know what the character looks like.”

He continued, “I remember when I auditioned for the Joker, I wasn't able to see any of the episodes, I wasn't able to read the script, it was like a three- or four-page audition scene, but they had one, a black-and-white drawing of the Joker, full size, not just a closeup. And he had those teeth and, just based on that drawing, it really meant a lot, because I thought, ‘I've gotta make that, whatever voice I come up with, sound like it's coming out of that character.’”

As for his character, Hamill was very careful not to give away any spoilers. Still, he explained that his character is “very much like Murray Hamilton in Jaws, he's a politician who puts his own career and appearances ahead of public safety, so, even though he doesn't think of himself as a villain, he's doing something that really leads to catastrophe.”

“I think he really shows his true colors through the way he treats his daughter, which is really dreadful. He should have listened to her more carefully, but then if he did, you wouldn't have a story. Or you'd have a story that takes longer to tell. This is really economical storytelling at its best. They establish the premise, they have four or five minutes of her investigating and finding out what she finds out, and then, of course, you have this over-the-top, bonkers, armageddon climax.”

Hamill’s episode “The Things in Oakwood’s Past” is streaming now on AMC+ and Shudder.