Mark Hamill recalls the first time he met Carrie Fisher in heartfelt message

The INSIDER Summary 

• Mark Hamill broke his silence over the death of his beloved friend Carrie Fisher in a heartfelt tribute in The Hollywood Reporter.
• The actor recalled the first time they met at dinner in London before filming "Star Wars."
• She won him over right away. He described her as "funny,""outspoken," and "brutally candid." 
• Over the years, Hamill says he went out of his way to make Fisher laugh.

Not many may have known Carrie Fisher as well as Mark Hamill. The actress, best known for her role as Princess Leia in "Star Wars,"died at the age of 60 after suffering a major heart attack.

Many celebrities took to social media shortly after her death to remember the actress's wit. While many shared old photos of Fisher and recalled what the actress meant to them, Hamill was at a loss for words. 

At the time, Hamill tweeted a solitary photo to his 1.5 million Twitter followers saying, "No words. #Devastated."

But on December 27, the 65-year-old actor broke his silence sharing an emotional few words about his fellow costar and friend, calling her an "irreplaceable member of the family."

He wasn't done yet. In a seven paragraph column in The Hollywood Reporter Monday, Hamill shared details of his close relationship with the star over the years. He recalled the first time they met, before filming "Star Wars," at a dinner in London. Hamill initially thought working with Fisher may be "like working with a high school kid" since she was 19 at the time and he was five years older. But boy was he wrong: 

I was just bowled over. I mean she was just so instantly ingratiating and funny and outspoken. She had a way of just being so brutally candid. I’d just met her but it was like talking to a person you’d known for 10 years. She was telling me stuff about her stepfather, about her mom, about Eddie Fisher — it was just harrowing in its detail. I kept thinking, "Should I know this?" I mean, I wouldn’t have shared that with somebody that I had trusted for years and years and years. But she was the opposite. She just sucked you into her world.

Hamill went on to share the lengths he went to make the actress laugh on set of the "Star Wars" movies and over the years saying that "making her laugh was always a badge of honor." He recalled a time where he put on Leia's one-piece white jump suit with a bald cap mask, glasses, and "Bozo hair."

His recollections reveal another side to Fisher that fans may not have known — a more sensitive one that she didn't reveal often.

I loved her and loved making her laugh. She would do these crazy things and make me do these crazy things, but I really don’t think they were crazy after all. In a way, it was a defense mechanism for her. She was so off the wall, she could use it as protection. Part of what was so poignant about her was that she was vulnerable, that there was this glimmer of a little girl that was so appealing and it roused the protective nature in my personality.

The entire piece is worth a read. You can check it out at The Hollywood Reporter here.

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