Mark Hamill is a massive comic book nut and it's obvious within five minutes of conversation with the actor that Batman is clearly his favourite. So providing the voice for Batman's greatest antagonist, The Joker, for 12 years of animated adventures must have been his dream role, and he loved it so much he wouldn't let anyone else near it. "I played The Joker from 1992 to 2004, for the entire run of the series," he says. "I did everything, even the talking toys. They weren't going to hire me, they were going to get another guy and I got very protective of the character.
"They said, 'Well, we can't pay you what you expect, we can only pay a scale.' I said, 'Look, I'd rather not let anyone else sleep in my sleeping bag.' I would do all those things for scale. I even did the voices on the Australian Batman rollercoaster ride, I'm totally into it."
He catches himself for a minute. "This is the real comic book nerd emerging," he laughs. "And I'm unapologetic about it, my wife just needed to deal with it! She liked antique jewellery, I liked comic books!"
IGN has come to meet Hamill at the Cannes Film Festival, where he's just announced intentions to direct a movie version of his comic book, The Black Pearl. But since his comic features a vigilante hero without superpowers, the conversation has wandered smoothly towards Batman. Specifically, towards his upcoming appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum 2.
But with The Joker forming such a large part of his acting career, it seems Hamill took some convincing to sign on for the sequel. "My answer to [developers Rocksteady] for the sequel was, 'Guys, we're never going to be able to top the original.' It was so claustrophobic. There were so many abilities like the stealth mode, and all those things you can do with the new technology. I wanted to be able to say I'd gone out on a high note."
It was the same reaction he'd had when Rocksteady first approached him about the role in the original Batman: Arkham Asylum. "When they said, 'We want you to come back [to the role of The Joker] and do Arkham,' I said the same; 'I left on a high note, I don't think we could ever top that.' But they said, 'We got Paul Dini,' who was my favourite ever Joker writer, 'and Kevin Conway,' who I love. This was a real reunion and a very pleasant experience. So of course I relented, but I had no idea it would have the impact it did."
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Hamill in Cannes to promote his new movie The Black Pearl.
Quite an impact, in fact. "That game, which is pretty much the last product I had on the marketplace, did something like $562m. I mean, we're talking about more than a half billion dollars." So he was unsurprised to get the phone call from Rocksteady about doing the sequel and they were equally unsurprised that he had doubts. "Of course they translated [my hesitance] to me holding out for a bigger salary," he laughs. "But I said, 'No.' I never looked at it like, 'Boy, I'm going to make a truckload of money.' I really did want it to be good."
So what changed his mind? "I got on the phone with Rocksteady and they really reassured me and told me what they were going to do with the sequel. But I'm sworn to secrecy!"
Nevertheless, there's plenty to be gauged from his final remarks, certainly about the fate of The Joker in this second part. "This will be my last, there's no question about that. But it's the last hurrah."
If Rocksteady repeat the success of the first game with this sequel a third will be on the cards, but it definitely won't feature Hamill's Joker. So does he die during Arkham 2? Hamill won't be drawn on what his determination to make this his last appearance means for the character, but the implication is obvious.
But while The Joker's days in the Asylum might be numbered, there's little doubt Hamill will pop up in another videogame sooner or later. He's a dab hand at acting for videogames, and he's even played digitally in the Marvelverse too. He provided the voice of Wolverine in the tie-in game for the movie, which came out last year. "I said, 'I can't do Hugh Jackman,' and they said, 'do your own approach,' so I did it very Clint Eastwoody and gritty."
It was this project reminded him of the risks involved in acting for videogames. "The game comes out and I give it to my two sons. A couple months later I say, 'Hey, have you ever played Wolverine?' They both look at each other, and I'm thinking, 'That's not a good sign.' I go, 'How is it?' and their response is, 'Well… You were good.' And of course it tanked."
Hamill may not know what went wrong but he's well aware of the challenge presented when involved in non-linear acting. "You can't tell when you're doing with these scripts that are thicker than two phonebooks, where you're doing every eventuality. There's a middle decision, a radical left, a radical right."
Joker's appearance in Arkham Asylum 2 is likely to be the last.
Wing Commander, he says, was "positively schizophrenic. I thought Malcolm McDowell was going to strangle someone on that, because you can't put together a character the way you do in a traditional narrative. One character comes up to yours with a plan and the general, Column B response is, 'Oh, OK… I'll get back to ya.' But then we do Column A and it's, 'You know, we've been going over this plan. It's brilliant!' And then it's Column C. 'Why do you waste my time with mush like this? GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!' You know, it's not the same guy. He's either reasonable or he's a pushover or he's just so antisocial he's almost psychotic. These are puzzle pieces that empower the player."
Hamill has figured out those challenges over the years. "I love games, puzzles. It's all part of my DNA to the point where I got what Chris Roberts [creator of Wing Commander] was trying to do. They're not the same goals you have in a play or a movie. But once I got the lie of the land and what it would become when it was all finished, that allowed me to get through the agony of the triple load of work you get."
Still, having finished with The Joker in 2004, coming back to the role after Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight was no small order, particularly given the work he'd have to do on the videogame script. "I was flattered they came back to me, especially after being blown away by Heath Ledger's incredible and novel take," he says. "He was the most joyless Joker. Not a hint of theatricality; he was almost like a heroin addict. It never would have occurred to me, and that's why it was so delightful and surprising. I was glad I got on and got off before that happened."
So what brought him back in the end? "In Arkham Asylum, since it wasn't based on the animated version, it was as nasty and gnarly as it could be, since it was aimed at an older audience. So it gave me a way to justify The Joker. And, again, I just love challenges!"
