It is incredibly difficult to not think of Mark Hamill and not think of the Joker, but there was a time where he saw his enemy for that role as Luke Skywalker.
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Today happens to be the 25th anniversary of Batman: The Animated Series, which stars stalwarts like Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill in the iconic roles of Batman and Joker respectively. It seems like a no brainer now, but Hamill wasn’t always a lock for the part.
“I figured there was no way they’d hire Luke Skywalker as the Joker. So, in a way it was very freeing,” Hamil told THR about trying out for the part. “I had great confidence at the audition because I thought there was no way I could get it. I thought, ‘I’m going to give them the best damn Joker they’ve ever heard and they’re really going to regret not being able to cast me.”
Part of what helped him land the role was his throwback vision for it, something he realized they wanted pretty early on.
“I remember going in and they gave me the Nicholson note, which wasn’t anything I wanted to do,” recalls Hamill, a note that said ‘Don’t Think Jack Nicholson’. “I wanted to deliver an old-school comic book interpretation of the Joker. He’s a theatrical guy who really has fun; the joy has to come across in his battle with Batman.”
He would eventually land the Joker thanks to his signature laugh, something that has become synonymous with the character. It was not his first part for Batman: The Animated Series, however.
“I called my agent and said, ‘I really want to get on this, but I’d like to play a villain that’s never been done before… Clayface, Hugo Strange, Two-Face.’ So my agent reached out and they wanted me for an episode,” says Hamill. He was cast as Ferris Boyle, Mr. Freeze’s boss. “I modeled Ferris after Phil Hartman, a guy with a smooth public persona and a different one behind the scenes.”
Both Conroy and Hamill reprised their roles in the recent Batman: The Killing Joke animated film and Hamill will reprise his role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
