Mark Hamill regrets his appearance in the Big Bang theory

“The Big Bang Theory” sparked a ton of incredible guest stars throughout its 12 seasons, including plenty of actors just from the “Star Trek” franchise, but one of the most exciting cameos had to come courtesy of Mark Hamill, the man famous for playing Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” which appeared in the season 11 episode “The Bow Tie Asymmetry.” However, according to a tell-all book about the show, he greatly regrets his appearance on the series.

Hamill, playing himself, ends up meeting Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) after Howard finds Hamill’s lost dog, appropriately named “Bark Hamill”, and then offers Howard a favor. Howard happily takes advantage of that favor by getting Hamill to officiate the wedding of his friends Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik)… but as Hamill told Jessica Radloff in her book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive Inside Story of the Hit Series“, was quite unknown with the series itself for a while.

“I didn’t really stick with the series from the beginning,” Hamill admitted, saying he actually came back to it while filming “The Last Jedi” in England. “I had to work out on the treadmill and I noticed that on Saturdays and Sundays one of the TV stations was showing four-hour blocks of ‘Big Bang,'” he continued. “At that time, there were so many episodes that I had that weren’t being watched, so I would do the treadmill and measure them, ‘Well, I’ll do one episode’s worth on the treadmill.’ And then, ‘Oh, I’ll do two episodes on the treadmill.’ run’, followed by three”. When all was said and done, Hamill said he had probably watched 30 to 40 episodes before guest starring on the series. series, but I wished I had seen more before showing up. “It took me months and months and months, but I’ve seen them all now,” he confessed.

Clearly, Mark Hamill knew he was behind the curve with “The Big Bang Theory,” but he made up for it in the end and, as a “Star Wars” veteran and pop culture lover, eventually came to truly love the movie. show.

“I knew they referenced all kinds of pop culture, and the characters loved comics, science fiction, fantasy (…) but I had no idea how ingrained it was and how they could be so subversive in their humor” Hamill said. Jessica Radloff, praising the show’s scathing attitude toward things like, say, the “Star Wars” prequels. “They’re planning a day to watch all the movies and they said, ‘Well, you know, we’ll start ‘Phantom Menace’ at noon and I wonder if an hour is enough to schedule for complaints.” I thought: Wow, what a burn!

In fact, Hamill said he wished he could had I knew more about the show before appearing on it because I could have talked to the cast and crew about the many, many episodes that referenced “Star Wars” or its creator, George Lucas. “Once I knew all this, it would have really changed my experience. I would have told them about when they go to (Lucas’ house) Skywalker Ranch, or (the Season 9 episode “The Opening Night Excitation”) where it starts with the trailer of (“Star Wars”),” Hamill reflected. “I thought I’d seen a lot when I did my episode, but I went completist and watched them all. I didn’t really fall in love with it that much until I had the experience of being on the show. I became obsessed with it.”

The part with Howard and Bark Hamill is just the beginning of Mark Hamill’s turn on “The Big Bang Theory,” because, as I mentioned, it all culminates with Hamill officiating Sheldon and Amy’s long-awaited wedding. This part of the episode is actually very funny; everyone watching the ceremony is losing my mind about Luke Skywalker’s presence and keeps asking him detailed questions about “Star Wars,” many of which he can’t even answer. (Thankfully, Stuart Bloom, played by Kevin Sussman, who almost got the role of Howard, knows the answer to almost all of them.) Then, during the actual vows, Hamill is so overwhelmed by how moving Amy and Sheldon’s speeches are that he cries… which is beautifully undercut when Sheldon asks Hamill to autograph a million things after the end of the vow. ceremony.

Hamill, for his part, love that, and his emotions were apparently real. “That was a cultural and pivotal moment in pop culture,” Hamill recalled. “I wasn’t expecting the emotion of the moment to hit me, so when it did, I felt choked up. The whole episode was so effortlessly well done. I love when Sheldon says, ‘I have four thousand things for you to sign.’ “Jim Parsons is brilliant, but the whole cast, really, is just perfect.”

“It was really nice having him there,” Parsons agreed, saying that even though the cast had just met Hamill, it worked out great. “For such a big scene, it was strangely intimate. And you have this person involved in an important moment that you don’t know very well and who had never been in the series before (…) I enjoyed that presence with It was wonderfully strange!