Just as there have been many Batmans throughout the history of film and television, there have also been many versions of theJoker.Mark Hamill, who rose to fame as the main hero of the originalStar Warstrilogy, Luke Skywalker, is one of the great actors to have had the chance to play the Clown Prince of Crime.
Created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, the famous villain made his first appearance in the 1940 comic bookBatman, and has since become one of the most popular characters in the world of DC. Outside the pages, his first appearance dates back to 1966, when César Romero played him in the Batman live-action series.
Since then, he has become a familiar face in both movies and tv shows, be it live-action or animated. Actors like Jack Nicholson or, more recently, Joaquin Phoenix have lent their bodies to bring him to life, but there is someone who has had the opportunity to embody him on several occasions, and that’s Mark Hamill.
The first timeHamill gave his voice to the Jokerwas in 1992, in the famousBatman: The Animated Series, becoming one of the favorite interpreters of The Dark Knight’s nemesis for fans. And one of the main reasons is because of his iconic laugh.
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Mark Hamill Gets Asked to Do the Joker’s Laugh All the Time
In a recent appearance onThe Wired Autocomplete Interview, Hamill shared important advice to perform the famous Joker laugh, confessing that it is one of the things that fans ask him the most to do:
“I get asked to this. I’ll be in the grocery store. It could be Toys “R” Us. ‘Do the laugh. Do the laugh’ Well, first of all you have to warm up. It’s like a car engine. If you just rip, it’ll hurt your throat. And plus, there’s no subtle way to do it. So, I’m standing in a Toys “R” Us laughing maniacally and people are like, casting me worried looks like, ‘What’s that old man doing to that poor 10-year-old kid?’ But I get asked to do it a lot.”
In 2019, the actor got the chance to play another character with an iconic laugh, just as macabre and scary as the Joker. Hamill starred in the film remake ofChild’s Play, giving his voice to Chucky the killer doll.
As for the future of the DC villain, Joaquin Phoenix’s version will be the first to return to the big screen in 2024Joker: Folie a Deux, in which Lady Gaga will also be introduced as Harley Quinn, and it will be a musical.
In one of his final scenes,The Batmanalso introduced its version of the villain, played by Eternal’s star Barry Keoghan. At the moment, it is unknown if the actor will return for the sequel or will be another of the villains of the Caped Crusader that Robert Pattinson will be facing in the next chapter directed by Matt Reeves.
