WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON (AP) — “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill stopped by the White House on Friday for a visit with President Joe Biden and left with a pair of the president’s aviator glasses and a greater respect for the office.
“I love the merchandise,” he said, taking off his glasses during a brief appearance at the daily White House press briefing following his visit with Biden. Hamill, 72, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, joked with reporters that he would take a few questions — as long as they weren’t about “Star Wars.”
“I was honored to be invited to the White House to meet the president,” he said. He had been to the White House before, during the Carter and Obama administrations, but he had never visited the Oval Office, and that was incredible, he said. Biden displayed photos and other items from the Oval Office, Hamill said.
Hamill said Biden told him to call him “Joe,” to which Hamill offered an alternative suggestion: “Can I call him Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?”
“He liked that,” said Hamill, who also voiced the Joker on “Batman: The Animated Series.”
Both Hamill and the White House were vague about the reason for the visit. But Hamill, a Democrat and Biden supporter with a large social media following, has been posting about the president’s re-election campaign this week.
“May the first one not quench his thirst for Biden’s re-election!” he wrote on May 1.
On Friday, he posted: “Let the third party be absurd that the guy who tried to steal a fair election can run again,” a reference to Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
May 4th is unofficially “Star Wars” Day, in part because of the famous Jedi phrase “May the force be with you.” The pun says: “May the fourth be with you.”
Hamill also lent his voice to “Air Alert” – a downloadable app linked to Ukraine’s air defense system. His voice calls on people to take cover whenever Russia launches another aerial bombardment over Ukraine.
