Star Wars actor Mark Hamill revealed that he planned to leave the United States if Donald Trump were re-elected president in 2024. The 73-year-old actor, best known for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker, told The Times that he had considered moving to either London or Ireland with his wife, Marilou Tork, whom he married in 1978.
Hamill, a lifelong Democrat, explained that the idea of relocating came after he grew disillusioned with the political climate in the U.S. He gave his wife the choice of where to move, but Tork, a dental hygienist whom Hamill met while she was cleaning his teeth, found a way to convince him not to go.
“She’s very clever. She didn’t respond right away, but a week later she said, ‘I’m surprised you would allow him to force you out of your own country,’” Hamill recalled, adding that her comment struck a chord. “That son of a b****, I thought. I’m not leaving.”
When discussing the state of U.S. politics, Hamill expressed his frustration with the Trump administration. He criticized the “bullying” and “incompetence” of the leadership and remarked on how he had to approach the situation with detachment to avoid spiraling into despair.
“I look at it like a thick, sprawling political novel instead of reality,” he said. “Otherwise, I’d become suicidal.” Despite his feelings, Hamill expressed his belief that there are still “more honest, decent people” in the country than those who align with the MAGA movement. “If I didn’t, I’d move back to England,” he added.
In the same interview, Hamill shared his reservations about U.S. gun culture, which almost led him to turn down a role in the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk. In the film, Hamill plays The Major, a man overseeing a brutal walking contest in a dystopian America where participants must walk or face execution.
Hamill was initially troubled by the gun violence portrayed in the film, but director Francis Lawrence helped him work through his concerns. “American society is gun violence, and it’s hard to get past that,” Hamill explained. “But as I spoke to him, I realized this is just the guy. He said he would have been surprised if I wasn’t troubled by it.”
Hamill also drew parallels between the film’s themes and real-world events, particularly recent ICE raids. “They were just brutalizing people, kneeling on their necks,” he said. “When I made the movie, I wasn’t thinking in terms of it being timely, but it’s proven to be just that.”
Hamill’s extensive career includes playing Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy and the sequel trilogy, along with appearances in numerous TV spin-offs.