Mark Hamill recently offered his advice for anyone trying to recreate his iconic Joker laugh from Batman: The Animated Series.
Hamill recently sat down for WIRED's Autocomplete Interview series. The actor, who voiced the Clown Prince of Crime in the DC Animated Universe, was asked how he does the character's distinct evil laugh. Hamill joked that he's constantly asked to do the laugh by fans wherever he goes. "Well, first of all you have to warm up," Hamill said. "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 Toys 'R' Us laughing maniacally and people are like, casting me weird looks, like 'What's that old man doing to that 10 year-old kid?' But I do get asked to do it a lot."
While Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, he is also known as the voice of the Joker, playing the role in various DC cartoons and video games since the 1990s. He first played the villain in the 1992 Batman: The Animated Series episode "Christmas With the Joker," and continued playing the character in The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League and more. In addition, he has voiced the supervillain in video games including Batman Vengeance, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City and once again in Batman: Arkham Knight.
Mark Hamill Steps Away From Joker
The actor previously announced he would be retiring from the role, which he doubled down on after the death of voice actor Kevin Conroy in 2022. He stated he only voices the character when Kevin Conroy is voicing Batman. "They would call and say, 'They want you to do the Joker,' and my only question was, 'Is Kevin Batman?' If they said yes, I would say, 'I'm in.' We were like partners. We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me."
Hamill also recently expressed he would be stepping away from playing Luke Skywalker in future Star Wars projects, after he played an older version of the Jedi in the sequel trilogy. Luke appeared in recent shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, but this was done using de-aging CGI, AI voice simulation and the look-alike actor Graham Hamilton. While Hamill said he's impressed with the technology, he supports casting a younger actor for stories about Luke Skywalker going forward.
All of Batman: The Animated Series is currently streaming on Max.
Source: YouTube