Mark Hamill very nearly pulled “an Ellen DeGeneres” and left the U.S. to avoid Donald Trump.
The Star Wars star was speaking to The Times of London on Saturday when he revealed that he strongly considered the move after Trump was elected the second time. He told the publication that he gave his wife two choices for where they could move: London or Ireland, but he ultimately decided against it. “I still believe there are more honest, decent people than there are the MAGA crowd,” he added, “If I didn’t, I’d move back to England.”
It’s the “bullying, the incompetence, the people in place” that make him averse to Trump, Hamill said. “The only way I can deal with it without going crazy and wanting to open my veins in a warm tub is to look at it like a thick, sprawling political novel,” he continued. “It’s entertaining in a way because this could actually be the end. Our status in the world has been crippled and that will reverberate for decades. Making Canada a 51st state? Do you know how offensive that is? And then taking over Greenland and renaming the Gulf of Mexico. The distractions are hilarious.”
Hamill, who showed his support for Joe Biden last May with an impromptu appearance at the White House press podium, has been vocal about his opposition to many of Trump’s moves throughout his first term, when he regularly went viral for using his animated Joker voice to read Trump’s tweets. He hasn’t minced words during Trump’s second term either, including when he drew more social media attention for mocking Trump’s “ludicrously oversized” ear bandage following the Butler, Pennsylvania rally shooting.
Had the Luke Skywalker actor’s disdain for the president led to his exodus from the country, he would have joined a growing list of anti-Trump celebrities who’ve fled overseas since he was re-elected. Longtime Trump nemesis Rosie O’Donnell revealed in April that she’d fled to Ireland. “I knew after reading Project 2025 that if Trump got in, it was time for me and my non-binary child to leave the country,” she told CNN at the time.
Ellen DeGeneres said she turned her temporary holiday with wife Portia de Rossi U.K. into a permanent one when Trump won. “We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in,’” she told the BBC, “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.’”
More stars have left the States since Trump’s second win, though not all have cited Trump as the reason. Angelina Jolie is reportedly also planning the move once her 17-year-old twins turn 18 next year.
Though Hamill initially wanted to escape America under Trump, he said it was his wife who helped him realize he wasn’t going to “allow him to force you out of your own country.” He added, “That son of a b---h, I thought. I’m not leaving.”
