SilverStar17
Super Freak
If this is what you think, I’m going to have to guess that you’re not too familiar with the acting process or actually done much acting in life.
Believe me, at this level, it’s far more than being a pawn to be moved about and placed by a writer/director. It is an intensely collaborative effort by an ensemble of extraordinary talents.
All actors, but especially elite professional actors, are required to pump life into the characters they play. They do this by pumping their own life energies into their performances. It is an intensely personal and intimate endeavor.
Top actors envelop and INHABIT their characters. Emotion and motivation is interpreted from the page and processed through the actor’s performance to the point where he can anticipate and improvise within the character and come off to an audience as perfectly natural and IN PLACE with who that character is. The only way to do this is to understand who the character is. To BE the character during the entire film making process.
For a man like Mark Hamill, who has not only brought life to Luke, but who has built a career around being Luke for more than 40 years, I would argue the NO ONE knows Luke Skywalker better than Mark Hamill. Because he was the life in Luke Skywalker in a VERY real way. A way that can be lost on those who have never really immersed themselves in this art form.
Mark is uniquely positioned to be sensitive to, and to call out character directions/requirements that are abhorrent to the character he has worked much of his life to create.
But Mark is also a professional. His statement is in perfect keeping with his professionalism. He took the direction he was given (and did a GREAT job at it too! Easily the performance of his career…) , and then expressed his hope that audiences would enjoy the final product.
In my interpretation, it was this Luke mis-match in terms of the character we knew vs the character we ultimately got that brought the film down. Obviously others are free to enjoy the character study Rian Johnson brought to the screen and herald it as bringing fresh air to a stale Star Wars machine….but that machine is a cherry ’67 GTO Convertible. We love the machine.
I don’t enjoy the term Luke Derangement Syndrome because it implies that people who didn’t recognize the guy with the beard and the crap attitude up on the screen (you know, people like Mark-freaking-Hamill..!) have something wrong with them, or that they don’t have the refinement necessary to appreciate the delicate genius of Rian Johnson. No true. We just rejected his interpretation of Luke in favor of the creator of the character…
Not true. Yoda NEVER gave up. He saw the demise of the Jedi, knew that the Empire was a force with which he could not deal with only himself and Ben, so he preserved himself as best he could in wait for the New Hope…
I don't need to have acting experience to have an opinion about a character that I've watched for several years. Even for the actor or actress, they're going to need to make a better argument that corroborates their position than simply just "well I play the character, so therefore my opinion is more valid than anyone else's". Citing to authority as a way to buttress your argument is never a good argument. You're going to have to make a better argument that explains why your stance is the "right" stance. This doesn't take away from or devalue their abilities as an actor or actress, as they certainly can do a craft not many people can do, but I disagree that it invariably means their opinion is the "right" stance, simply predicated on the fact that they portray the character.
It's like saying I can't disagree with an economist and that I just need to take his or her word for it simply because I don't have a degree in economics, even though I can read and comprehend the same exact charts and have an opinion on them. Simply saying you're an economist so therefore you're "right", isn't a very strong argument. Either the argument you proffer is good or it's bad, regardless of credentials.
You'd be right about Yoda, but Luke also did the same. I'm paraphrasing, but I recall Luke making a statement to Rey about if the Resistance just expects him to walk out and take on the FO with a lightsaber and he'll save the day, which to me intimated the same sentiments as what Yoda had that you're referring to.