Mark Hamill planned to turn down The Long Walk over gun violence until the director said somethin...

The &34;Star Wars&34; icon and threetime Stephen King actor recalls the phone call that convinced him to do the movie. Mark Hamill planned to turn down The Long

The "Star Wars" icon and three-time Stephen King actor recalls the phone call that convinced him to do the movie.

Mark Hamill planned to turn down The Long Walk over gun violence until the director said something that changed his mind

The "Star Wars" icon and three-time Stephen King actor recalls the phone call that convinced him to do the movie.

By Nick Romano

Nick is an entertainment journalist based in New York, NY. If you like pugs and the occasional blurry photo of an action figure, follow him on Twitter @NickARomano.

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September 11, 2025 4:23 p.m. ET

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Mark Hamill as the Major in 'The Long Walk'. Credit:

Murray Close/Lionsgate

- Mark Hamill explains how his aversion to horror and guns made him want to turn down *The Long Walk*.

- The Star Wars icon recalls the phone call with director Francis Lawrence that changed his mind.

- The "hardest day" on set for Hamill didn't involve any walking, just exposition.

Mark Hamill has a strong aversion to horror.

The *Star Wars* legend, 73, remembers the time he received an offer to star in the sequel to *The Human Centipede*. He did not mince words.

"That was an easy one. I said, 'No, don't send the script,'" Hamill recalls to **. "The premise alone — I'll never see one, and I really resent the fact that some human being thought of that concept of sewing people together, mouth to anus. Goodbye, and never enter my life again."

When *The Long Walk* came around as an adaptation of Stephen King's 1979 dystopian horror novel, he was similarly apprehensive about taking on the role of the Major, the head of this story's Gestapo. "I get the appeal of *Friday the 13th* and all those horror, slasher, gore movies, but they're just not for me," the actor says.

*The Long Walk* also had the disadvantage, in Hamill's eyes, of heavily featuring guns. The King tale envisions an America run by a dictator, where every year the country throws a commemorative contest. Young men gather to compete in this event, called the Long Walk, where they trek along an established route at a speed of at least 3 miles per hour until there's only one person standing. If they can't keep the pace, they get a warning. Three warnings result in their executions (i.e. a bullet to the head).

Hamill planned on turning down the role because of this. "Gun violence is just one of the worst aspects of American life," he says. "I remember when they banned the assault weapon under [President Bill] Clinton, and it lapsed under [President] George W. [Bush]. You see the statistics where there's a steep drop in shootings without an AR-15, and then they go right back up when it's allowed again. It's the Second Amendment, people hunt, but it's just out of control. No other country has the tragedies that we have. So, yeah, I hate guns."

Joshua Odjick, Jordan Gonzalez, David Jonsson, Cooper Hoffman, and Charlie Plummer in 'The Long Walk'.

Murray Close/Lionsgate

He planned to personally call up filmmaker Francis Lawrence, known for the *Hunger Games* franchise, to explain why he wasn't accepting the part of the Major. But that call changed his perspective. "I realized this is the exact guy who *should* do this," Hamill notes.

In a separate conversation with EW, Lawrence, who also directed Keanu Reeves in *Constantine* and Jennifer Lawrence in *Red Sparrow*, explains his ethos around adapting the kills of *The Long Walk*.

"It's a Stephen King story. It's a very visceral, intense story. We made a decision very, very early on that this was not something that we were gonna shy away from," he says. "The way that I handled the first death, I wanted it to actually be quite shocking. It tees up the promise of the intensity of the rest of the movie...but as you move through the various losses, you want each of them to feel very different. You don't want them all to just be shock and horror. You want the emotional value of each of them to be as different as possible so you get the full experience."

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This appealed to Hamill. "Clearly, it's not about the violence," he points out. "That's the ultimate punishment for failing, but I think the way it's structured, the first death is the most graphic and the audience records that in their memory. Every other elimination is perfunctory at best. It's not about brains exploding.... It's about the relationships of these guys. The real heart and soul of the picture are their experiences under these incredible circumstances."

This is now Hamill's third role in a King adaptation. He forgot about his first one: police officer Sheriff Jenkins in *Sleepwalkers*, King's first original screenplay not based on one of his books. The second was *The Life of Chuck*, playing the father of Tom Hiddleston's Chuck Krantz.

Charlie Plummer, Garrett Wareing, Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Ben Wang, Tut Nyuot, and Joshua Odjick in 'The Long Walk'.

Murray Close/Lionsgate

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Hamill admits the Major was a relatively easy gig compared to his costars' responsibilities. While Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, and the rest of the young cast were constantly filming in motion on the titular Long Walk, he, as the Major, often stood riding in a military vehicle, overseeing the competitors.

Hamill's first day on set, however, was his hardest. "I had so much exposition," he remembers. "I had to lay out all the details: Under 3 miles, you get a warning, a second warning, and all that. I had a clipboard, so I had a couple of words that were cheat cues to refer to, but after, I don't know, two or three takes, I seemed to be regressing."

Lawrence gave his assurance. "He said, 'That first take, you got 99 percent of what I needed. In coverage, we will cover the couple of mistakes you made.' And that took the burden off," he says.

Consider that the second time Hamill knew Lawrence was the guy for this job.

*The Long Walk* opens in theaters this weekend.

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL Movies"

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