AN 'EMPIRE' AT 40: LUKE's NEW SKILL SETS!

With battle scar make-up applied, Mark Hamill prepares to rehearse another part of the lightsaber duel.

More exciting, more challenging, and more exhausting than his prior work bringing Luke Skywalker to life with the original Star Wars in 1976, Mark Hamill would recall of Empire's action-packed filming:

"It was unlike anything I'd ever done. Physically, 'Empire' was an ordeal I'd never experienced before. After the end of the training you felt you going to die and waited in the corner for Death to come and take you by the hand. I'm rolling, falling, hanging upside down, flying out the porthole, battered and beaten. I didn't have any free time to myself. The sword fight took about six to seven weeks to film."

"I did all my own stunt work in 'Star Wars', In 'Empire' there were a couple of things the insurance people wouldn't let me do. The ones they let me do were bad enough. I sprained my thumb, they had to shut down the film for a week."

Mark Hamill - Questor magazine 1980

In one of Elstree Studios storage bay areas, Mark Anderson goes through his lightsaber duel moves with Olympic fencing coach Bob Anderson, watched by Peter Diamond.

A winded Hamill talks to Michel Parbot's documentary crew about the lightsaber duel training.

Learning new skills like Kendo and Karate, alongside weight-training, Hamill was determined to do as many of the stunts and practical lightsaber duels scenes possible for the film, ultimately becoming a member of the British Stunt Association for his incredible hard work. The actor was keen for the action to be bigger in scope and more impressive to audiences than anything seen with the original Star Wars, remembering how several kids conversed with him in how they thought the surprise Tusken Raider attack against Luke had looked 'hokey' back in 1977.

Ever the trouper, Hamill, now a proud dad to his first child, would incur many bumps and bruises during the fight scenes- so much so that his wife Marilou took Polaroids of his bruises, whose body patterning he jokingly referred to as looking like a relief map of South America! Recalled Bob Anderson: “Mark Hamill (in Empire and Jedi) was naked compared to Darth. Darth was completely covered. You could hit him anywhere and it wouldn’t hurt.” 

It is said in the unauthorized behind the scenes book Empire Building (by Garry Jenkins) that, as Hamill and Anderson filmed the lightsaber duel, Kershner criticized the young star's facial expression at one point. Hamill, suffering in the oppressive heat and increasingly worried about his wife and child, would take an exception. When Kershner shrugged and told Hamill he would see what he meant when he saw the finished movie, the alleged argument apparently degenerated into childishness, with Hamill snapping: “I don’t even want to see the movie”. To which Kershner replied, “Really,” before shouting, “Cut the lights, cut the camera, cut everything.” If Hamill was not interested, why make the movie, he asked? Within moments, both men’s faces were allegedly wreathed in embarrassment - another tense time between the pair on a difficult and intense set at Elstree.