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Mark Hamill has been synonymous with two classic characters in pop culture history. While he remains the face of Luke Skywalker in theStar Warsfranchise, he lent his vocal talents to Batman’s arch-nemesis Joker in the DCAU. Beginning withBatman: The Animated Series, Hamill has lent his voice to the character in multiple DCAU shows and movies.
One of Hamill’s most distinctive qualities as the Joker is his laugh. The laugh of the animated Joker has been forever associated with the character and many have tried to emulate the maniacal nuance of Hamill’s iteration. The actor mentioned that he used the laugh not just to create an eerie characteristic but also to communicate his feelings with just a cackle.
Mark Hamill Created A Vocabulary With His Laughs As The Joker
Apart from being extremely unpredictable and impulsive, one of the most distinctive qualities of the Joker is his laugh. Many have tried their iterations with varying degrees of success. While Heath Ledger’s laughs were few and far between, and sometimes even sarcastic, Jared Leto’s seemed to be extremely derivative and lacked any discerning qualities.
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While Joaquin Phoenix’sJokerturned the character’s maniacal laughter into a psychological condition, no one nailed the exact craziness and unpredictability of that cackle other than Mark Hamill. TheStar Warsactor began his career as the Joker inBatman: The Animated Seriesand went on to voice the Clown Prince of Crime in various other DCAU shows.
Mark Hamillmentioned that he was extremely with creative wit his laughter, even creating a language of it to express the emotions the Joker was going through at different times. He said in an interview withAnimation World Magazine,
“What I liked about doing the Joker was his villainy. I thought, you know, I could use this laugh almost as a vocabulary. Instead of having it be one continuous laugh, I could use it like color on a canvas. There could be sinister laughs, there could be joyful, gleeful, maniacal laughs, there could be malevolent and evil laughs. There are so many different colors that you may give him so that kids will have more than one laugh to mimic on the playground.”
The actor went on to reprise his role as the Joker in multiple other films and shows such asBatman: Mask of the Phantasm, The New Batman Adventures,andJustice League.
Mark Hamill Practiced His Joker Laugh On The Freeway In His Car
What set Mark Hamill’s Joker apart from other iterations of the Clown Prince of Crime was his dedication to giving more details to the character. Despite only lending his voice, Hamill added more dimensions to the villain by interpreting several aspects of his iconography into motivations and emotions. The most important aspect of this was his laugh.
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Hamill mentionedin an interviewabout how he crafted the various cackles of the Joker inBatman: The Animated Series
“I remember reading the comic books. It was ‘Ha Ha Ha’ but also lots of ‘Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho’. His laugh should be like a musical instrument that sort of illustrates his mood. It could be ominous and intimidating, [or] he could be gleeful with wild abandon.”
The actor mentioned that he did not want to limit himself to one stereotypical villainous laughter and actually wanted to experiment with it. He said that he was practicing his laugh while he was driving on the freeway in Los Angeles, being judged by other commuters next to him. He said,
“I was driving to the first recording session thinking, ‘How did I laugh?’ I am on the freeways of Los Angeles [practicing laughter]. Now, I am sure someone in Los Angeles would look twice at somebody saying, ‘Look at that guy laughing maniacally in his car.’”
Mark Hamill’s portrayal of the Joker earned him two nominations at the Annie Awards for Voice Acting. TheBatman: TASshow also led him to pursue a career in voice acting.
Batman: The Animated Seriesis streaming on Max.
Nishanth A
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2415
Nishanth A is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows with over 2,000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years and a scriptwriter at various corporations before that, working on educational content. With a Communications, English Literature, and Psychology triple major, Nishanth usually covers news and analyses on Star Trek, particularly Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation; Doctor Who, the DCU, and more.A Nolan fan, Nishanth spends his time exploring the filmographies of various directors with an auteurial style or can be found making short movies of his own. He has also contributed as a feature writer for Film Companion, focusing on the South division.
