I’ve met Mark Hamill. When I say “met” I mean I paid to stand in line to get his autograph, stood in front of him for 30 seconds and exchanged maybe twelve words (he was losing his voice on day three of Celebration 2017, so he couldn’t say much). He did manage a laugh and say “I’ve never seen this before” when I handed him a photo I had done of his ANH Hot Toys figure as “The Farmhand” from a series of old west-inspired photographs. And that was it.
It was fantastic to even get that close to someone who was a childhood hero and continues to be one of your favorite famous people of all time. But it’s quick and it’s over and you have the autograph but it’s fleeting.
Recently, I did a few shots based around the idea of Luke keeping a diary of his lonely time on Ahch-To. The first of these featured the Jedi reading to his new Porg friends (the tale of Darth Plagueis in this case!). It did really well with my followers and garnered a like from one non-follower…Mark Hamill! Mark’s a regular on social media, of course, and surprises some of his followers/fans with a response or shout-out here and there, but I never expected to be on the receiving end of one of those rarities.
In fact, he actually did retweet one of my early shots – a tribute to Kenny Baker after he passed away. Unfortunately, it was someone else’s tweet of my post (without credit) – but still a great feeling.
So that’s it, probably as close as I’ll get to one of my idols without paying $200. Thanks, Mark (he’s not reading this)!