July 11, 1977 Gene Shalit interviewing Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.

Gene: One of the biggest movie hits this summer is Star Wars. And it is not unusual to meet a nine or ten year old kid who has seen it five or six times. Star Wars has got spaceships and princesses, lovable robots and evil villains in black, apes. It ends happily ever after. That's nice. And with me are three stars of Star Wars.

[camera points to Carrie, smiling]

Gene: Carrie Fisher, who plays the princess.

[camera points to Mark, also grinning]

Gene: Mark Hamill, who plays the innocent and brave young hero.

[camera points to Harrison, who looks a little uncomfortable, then smiles]

Gene: and Harrison Ford, the only movie actor named after two presidents, who is the dashing, daring space pilot who helps them all escape from danger.

[camera shows shot of all of them sitting around a table]

Gene: Good morning all.

[Harrison, Mark, and Carrie say good morning simultaneously]

Gene: Is that nice to be named after two presidents?

[Harrison smiles]

Harrison: It's ... it's never come up before.

[everyone laughs]

Gene: I have not seen, with the exception of Rocky, in the last few years, a kind of audience participation and audience reaction for and to a film that we have for Star Wars.

[camera points to Harrison]

Harrison: It's great to sit in a theater and see people really enjoy something like that. [Mark starts to speak, but Harrison cuts him off] It's easy to be unanimous at this point. [everyone laughs] Really. No body recognizes us when we go into a theater. Which is a pleasure, I must say.

Gene: [points to Carrie] Nobody recognizes you?

Carrie: This one guy who had seen it twelve times. And he asked me out.

[Harrison and Mark grin]

Gene: What was his reaction? ... he asked you out?

Carrie: [feigns shock and falls back in her chair] ... the princess! No, I first told him that I was the prize that Twentieth Century Fox had heard he'd seen it twelve times and he got a free date with the princess and a bucket of popcorn. And he believed it. [everyone laughs]

Gene: How do you audition for a film in which mostly you're acting in front of a blue screen?

Mark: Unbelievable, the way this came about. I wish I could say I walked in and said THERE'S Luke Skywalker. I walked in, George was having several interviews with Brian DePalma, who's casting Harry. [snaps his fingers] Every five minutes there ... there was another person waiting just to talk. And I never saw a script. I got five pages after that initial meeting in the mail that said memorize it, show up and you're gonna test with this guy [points to Harrison] And believe me, it was never that George Lucas said this is what we're gonna do. He said lets's just do it.

Gene: [points to Harrison] And you knew George Lucas because you were in one of his other big hits, American Graffitti. And very brillant in that, I must say. You've been in two enormous, popular successes. American Graffitti is one of the top twenty-five money makers, and this is gonna be sky high, pardon the expression.

Gene: You three are young actors and actress, and you worked with one of THE superb actors of our time, Alec Guinness. What was it like to work with that kind of man?

Mark: I was shaking [imitates shaking] when I first met him. He came to the lobby of the hotel I was staying at so we could have lunch and get to know each other. And he's very shy. It took awhile to get to know him. But as he loosens up, he's everything you would want. He's generous, he wants you to look good. He's humble to ... almost to the point of being annoying. You can't talk about The Bridge on the River Kwai. He'll say no, no, no, no, let's talk about *your* career. So you figure what should I tell him about, a soap opera I was on, or what?

Gene: Well the name of the movie is Star Wars. It is going to be one of THE biggest money making movies of our time, no doubt about it. One of the big hits of the summer. And these are three of the non-robots. [everyone laughs]