Inside Harrison Ford And Mark Hamill's Friendship
Harrison Ford has long admitted his disdain for his "Star Wars" character, Han Solo, but if there's one thing about the franchise that he cherishes, it's the friendships he's made along the way.
Despite being one of the lead characters in one of the most popular film franchises in history, Harrison confessed he didn't like his character, Han Solo, that much. "He's got a good heart but I think he's certainly a much less interesting character than Indiana Jones. He's dumb as a stump," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2014."The breadth of his story utility was never extensive."
His time on set wasn't all that great, either. Speaking with Buzzfeed in 2020, he revealed the crew wasn't exactly fond of the actors then. "The complete and utter disdain of our very experienced British crew felt for what we were doing," he said when asked about his fondest memories of filming the franchise. "They couldn't figure it out. A guy running around in a dog suit, a princess, some guys in tight pants... They couldn't figure out what we were doing, so they laughed at us constantly — thought we were ridiculous, and we were, BUT we made a movie that people really enjoyed seeing." They did indeed, and over the many years of being the captain of Millenium Falcon, he forged lifelong friendships with his co-stars, especially Mark Hamill.
Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill were close from the get-go
While Mark Hamill was also close to Carrie Fisher, he once told a fan that his "best relationship" in the "Star Wars" franchise was with his pal, Harrison Ford. He brought up the time that Ford wanted to destroy the Millenium Falcon out of anger, and he was the only person capable of stopping him.
"People were coming up to me. going, 'You gotta stop Harrison, he's sawing up the Falcon,'" he shared (via Empire). "I love Harrison. I got to stop him because I can make him laugh when he gets really, really mad." Hamill also said there's a side to Ford that not a lot of people know. "He's got a wonderfully wacky sense of humor," he added. "We used to love really bad pop songs, so whenever that song [Andrea True's "More, More, More"] would come on I'd run and turn it on. And he'd come into my dressing room and start dancing. 'More, more, more...' But the minute somebody comes to the door, he'd stop dead and stand there... He'd only do it around me."
Ford is quite fond of his co-star, too. He said that if it weren't for Hamill, he wouldn't be the "cool" guy he turned out to be. "When I met Mark Hamill, I really learned how to be cool," he shared in a "Jake's Takes" interview. "He's just a really straightforward nice guy. He's really a sweet guy."
Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill have remained friends after Star Wars
When Mark Hamill received his star on the Walk of Fame, Harrison Ford made sure to tell the world how much in awe he was of his pal. "I prepared myself for this experience by going back and looking at the screen test that I did with Mark. And I was surprised — actually — how good he was. Not that, at the time, I felt that he wasn't good. I thought he was great. He had just the right blend of youthfulness and enthusiasm," he said.
And while they no longer talk as often as they used to, he shared that he's always rooting for Hamill. "Mark is a friend that I don't see very often, our lives have diverged to a certain extent, but I am very pleased for him," he continued. "He has been the master of his own experience, his own life, and he is, as he always was, a quiet, sincere, honest person. He's not a grandstander and I think he has found comfort and utility and control of his destiny and I'm happy for you, pal."
Hamill is just as happy that he has Ford as his lifelong bud, too. "For Harrison [birthday cake emoji]," he tweeted on Ford's 80th birthday. "Glad to be your pal, mh."