Mark Hamill and his wife Marilou York had their first son while filming The Empire Strikes Back. Reportedly, his son arrived in the late hours of the morning, and Mark had to race to the set for filming. The stress of his son’s birth and lack of sleep could have played into a pivotal scene in Cloud City. Or, was it on Hoth?
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The Birth of Mark Hamill’s Son and The Empire Strikes Back
As posted here, Mark Hamill’s wife Marilou came with her husband to Norway for the filming of The Empire Strikes Back. She was pregnant with their first son, who arrived early. “Despite having stayed up all night, Mark Hamill arrived on time at the set” to film the scene when Luke is hanging on to an electronic weather vane before Lando, Chewie, and Leia rescue him in the Millennium Falcon.
This surprising Star Wars insight caused one fan from above to note that “all the stress and lack of sleep probably added to his performance” since he was shooting that death-defying scene. As we rewatch it here, Luke seems completely wiped and barely hanging on for his life. Hamill’s real-life situation could have amplified that appearance.
Yet, this story is not quite right. Nathan Hamill was actually born in London, England, in June 1979, after his father had finished filming in Finse, Norway. That “unforgiving snowscape” location was the setting for Hoth, and filming began back in February of the same year. Mark Hamill had a “physically-demanding” experience in Norway, but not directly from his son’s birth.
In the above article, Mark talked about how making Empire was “a really pivotal time” in his life because Marilou and he were expecting their first child. The stress of an upcoming birth certainly played into his time in Finse/Hoth, where he confronted “the brutal elements of an extremely harsh Norwegian winter.” Yet, the actual birth happened afterward.
More immediately, we could claim that the pressure of the movie and his personal life helped contribute to Luke’s appearance before and after escaping from the Wampa cave. Inside the first scene, Luke already looks haggard as he hangs from the cave ceiling. Then, once he falls in the snow outside and Obi-Wan’s Force Ghost appears, he looks like he could sleep for days.
Cloud City scenes were primarily filmed at Elstree Studios in London. Based on Nathan Hamill’s Wookieepedia page, it looks like his father Mark stayed up all night for his birth before filming the hanging-for-his-life scene at this location.
However, Mark corrected the story and indicated his son “was not in fact born in the morning before he shot the scene where he fell from Cloud City.” Like the above suggestion about Hoth, Mark was given the day off but was “called nine hours after Nathan’s birth to come in for one shot.” This shot was done with a green screen and fake snow when Luke confronted an AT-AT Walker.
Mark probably felt tired for this scene, more so than the Cloud City one.
Other Connected Facts
Nathan Hamill went on to make a cameo appearance in the 1999 Phantom Menace. This minor character became known as Rehtul Minnau based on what Nathan called him. He also later played the Resistance fleet guard Saile Minnau in The Last Jedi.
Filming of Empire not only included a birth, but also a death. On June 11, 1979, “many crew members attended the funeral of production designer John Barry,” who won an Academy Award for A New Hope. Barry had died suddenly the previous week while working as a second unit director.
On the day of his son’s birth, Mark Hamill injured his thumb. When he came in to film the AT-AT scene, he dove away from the walker and hurt it on “a salt-covered soundstage.” This injury led to some delay with shooting the famous lightsaber duel with Vader in Cloud City.
As a toddler, Nathan visited the set of Return of the Jedi. He took a family photo with his mother and father inside Yoda’s hut. Fortunately, he didn’t get injured or stay up all night.
Mark Hamill’s First Son and Empire
Although some of the facts have gotten mixed up, Mark Hamill’s first son was born during the filming of Empire. The birth of Nathan Hamill probably had the biggest impact on Mark’s scene diving away from an AT-AT, not as in Cloud City.