How Freddy Krueger Helped Mark Hamill Land his STAR WARS Gig
Hollywood is full of all kinds of fun and interesting stories, and I have a bit of trivia here that you may have never heard before. In an interview with Yahoo, Robert Englund, the actor who famously played Freddy Krueger the A Nightmare on Elm Street films, shared the story of how he helped Mark Hamill land the role of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.
Englund explained that his early career and Hamill's road to Star Wars started out with Englund auditioning for a surfer role in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. The actor didn't get the part because he was too old for the role, but Coppola thought he might be right for another part in a film being directed by his good friend George Lucas. So an audition was set up for Englund to audition for the part of Han Solo. He didn't fit the role though because he was too young — I can't imagine the actor playing Solo at all. Englund went on to explain in his own words how these events and a six-pack of beer set a friend up for his legendary break.
"And then I went home and told a little kid that was sleeping on my couch, after a six-pack of Heineken, all about [Star Wars], and his name was Mark Hamill. I said, ‘Hey, Lucas is doing this space movie. Maybe you’re right for it. The lead guy’s like a teenager…. So Mark got on the phone to his agent and I think he went up the next day. He nailed it, and the rest is history."
There you have it! That's kind of crazy to think about because had Englund not gone through when he did, Hamill may have never auditioned for Star Wars, it was just destiny. Now he's coming back to reprise his role in the new trilogy being developed. Of course things worked out for Englund in the end when he landed the iconic horror movie role. Englund also revealed that Hamill had a crush on Carrie Fischer. Who wouldn't at that time?