How Harrison Ford Convinced Mark Hamill He Wasn’t Having an Affair With Carrie Fisher While Filming ‘Star Wars’
Since the first Star Wars film premiered in 1977, actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford have been linked in fans’ minds. But when Fisher shared the details of her affair with Ford, many — including Hamill — were surprised. Discover how Hamill reacted and how Ford covered up the secret.
Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford met on the set of ‘Star Wars’
Today, Star Wars is a massive franchise, comprised of three film trilogies and other off-shoots, including additional movies, TV series, video games, and more. But in the mid-1970s, it was just a single idea from George Lucas, who wrote and directed Star Wars (later be subtitled Episode IV – A New Hope).
Lucas brought in three relatively unknown actors to play the leads in his low-budget space opera: Hamill as Luke Skywalker, the earnest dreamer training to be a Jedi; Fisher as Princess Leia, the Rebel leader who proves to be more than she seems; and Ford as Han Solo, a pilot who becomes part of the resistance.
Fisher and Ford kept their affair a secret for many years
On screen, the three strangers found themselves working together and becoming friends. Off screen, the dynamic was similar. However, before their characters started up a romance, Ford and Fisher engaged in a real-life tryst. However, they kept it a secret, as Ford was married at the time.
In Fisher’s 2016 memoir, The Princess Diarist, she detailed how their relationship began. She and Ford first kissed in a car. Hamill drove by in another car, and they were afraid he saw them. They all had dinner after that. During the months-long affair, Ford and Fisher mostly slept at the apt Fisher was staying at that belonged to a friend.
Hamill didn’t know until Fisher’s memoir
When The Princess Diarist was released, Hamill learned about the affair along with the rest of the world. He told ET he was “blissfully unaware” of their secret, despite the near slip-up Fisher mentioned. “I was so self-involved at that point, they could’ve been doing it in front of me, and I wouldn’t have noticed,” he joked.
Hamill wasn’t upset that he didn’t hear about Ford and Fisher’s relationship until decades later. In fact, he says it was “good” that he didn’t know at the time, as it could have affected him doing his job. “I think it might have been a distraction if I’d known what was going on [during filming],” he explained.
Ford pretended it wasn’t happening in front of Hamill
There was another instance in which Hamill might have suspected something. Fisher wrote that Hamill had come to Ford’s apartment one morning after she’d stayed over the night before. “Clearly I hadn’t just dropped by for brunch, as no scones or eggs were in evidence, and we didn’t appear to be running lines,” she wrote.
How did they handle it? “Harrison, after letting Mark in, returned to the table we’d been sitting at, sat down across from me, took my hand, and pronounced solemnly, ‘We’re engaged,” Fisher wrote. “It was hiding in plain sight, mocking the suggestion that there was anything going on; therefore, it couldn’t be true.”
