--- title: Watch: Mark Hamill Undercover as a Stormtrooper for Charity description: As part of the promotion for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mark Hamill disguised himself as a Stormtrooper. canonical: https://time.com/4134764/star-wars-the-force-awakens-mark-hamill-undercover-stormtrooper-charity-force-for-change/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T18:20:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:17.258Z og:title: Watch Mark Hamill Go Undercover as a Stormtrooper og:description: People had no idea they were meeting Luke Skywalker himself og:url: https://time.com/4134764/star-wars-the-force-awakens-mark-hamill-undercover-stormtrooper-charity-force-for-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Mark Hamill Go Undercover as a Stormtrooper twitter:description: People had no idea they were meeting Luke Skywalker himself twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Mark Hamill Go Undercover as a Stormtrooper to Talk to Fans > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=92323dc7-f314-4719-aff1-5a1af2933129&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Photographing TIME's Star Wars Cover [Watch (HLS stream): Photographing TIME's Star Wars Cover](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KXrQmNTF.m3u8) (3:31)  _Published 2015-12-03. For the latest issue of TIME, Marco Grob photographed the cast members of_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 3, 2015 6:20 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 3, 2015 6:20 PM UTC As part of the promotion for the upcoming [_Star Wars: The Force Awakens_](http://time.com/4116403/star-wars-force-awakens-fan-theories/), Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the series, disguised himself as a Stormtrooper and asked fans to donate to charity. The 64-year-old actor took to Hollywood Boulevard to encourage people to donate to a Omaze fundraising campaign, [Force for Change](https://www.omaze.com/experiences/starwarspremiere?utm%5Fsource=social-youtube-omaze&utm%5Fmedium=video-prank&utm%5Fcontent=2&utm%5Fcampaign=child%5Fhealth-international&oa%5Fh=x5b005). The grand prize winner gets tickets to the premiere of the franchise’s latest installment. “The last time anybody saw me in a stormtrooper outfit was when we rescued the princess off the Death Star,” said Hamill, as he donned his gear. “I couldn’t be more proud of everyone in the _Star Wars_ family.” As he spread word about the contest, the costumed Hamill encountered other characters from the galaxy far, far away, such as Darth Vader, spoke to adoring fans (who didn’t realize they were meeting Luke Skywalker himself) and even got involved in a lightsaber battle. See the full video above. [_Vote: Which Star Wars Cover Is Your Favorite?_](http://time.com/4133476/poll-star-wars-the-force-awakens-cover-r2d2-bb8/) ## Transcript If you would have told me a couple weeks ago that I was touched by a robot I would have laughed, I think they scare me more than anything else. Well, when I met BB- 8, it's even weird to say that, when I met BB- 8, whoever designed that thing They are geniuses. Hello. They almost build up some form of real human connection. It has an eye, one eye. It has this really cute way of looking at you. It's just incredible. As a result, the photo of course brings over that character. [ MUSIC ] You get almost starstruck when you meet R2- D2. You have seen that thing since the beginning of my life almost. It was really special. My name is Marco Grab. I'm a photographer. I'm contract photographer for Time Magazine. And I had the honor to photograph all the cast members of the new Star Wars movie. [ MUSIC ] When I got this assignment, I kinda had to think of how I wanna do justice to every single person and then still within the legacy of Star Wars. After all, it's about the actors more than about the characters they play in the film. [ MUSIC ] At the last. Let it go. I like to play with psychological barriers often. Not to expose them at all. It's more how is it to be so close to Harrison Ford? And in order to show the person that looks at the photograph, I have to be physically so close to Harrison Ford. That is the one chance photography has to show us something we would not have normally access to. [ MUSIC ] So we have all a built in default position for how far we wanna stand in front of somebody to have a conversation with him or her. And if you go closer than that, that always results in some form of reaction. It's somewhat going into their defense sphere. It makes people extremely vulnerable. I kind of like to play with that sometimes. To photograph Daisy and John, the youngest of the two actors, They have more attention right now then probably any other actor has or will have in the next couple years. It showed when you worked with them they were very open and giving and it was fun to work with them, and it's also nice to be there in a very specifically important time in their life. For me Star Wars is hundreds of people trying to push the envelope. People take enormous risks in creative and in technical aspects to do things we've never seen before. In a way nobody would have imagined to ever seen. That is for me the most important about it because I love when people take leaps into the unknown. [ UNKNOWN ] touches millions, millions of lives over the next decades. 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