Mark Hamill Tested To See If Hollywood Tourists Would Recognize Him On The Street—And It Didn't Go Well

Given how big the Star Wars fanbase is, you would think that most people would recognize Mark Hamill if they saw him on the street—especially somewhere as contextually grounding as the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

But apparently not, according to a stunt that Hamill pulled while guest-starring on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

Curious to see how many people would recognize him out in public, Hamill appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and stood next to his star while wearing jeans, a jacket, and a hat pulled down over his forehead, lightly disguising himself.

He started off by acting like an excited fan, asking people who walked by to take a picture of him with the star. Eventually, someone stopped and agreed to take the photo, and he sat down on the ground in the exact same position he'd sat in when his star was revealed to the public.

Later, he pranked two gentlemen, saying that Hamill had died in a jetski accident that day, and the two men stopped and chatted with him while checking online to see if that news was true, before cautioning him against believing everything he read on the internet.

When a person walked by in a full Darth Vader costume, Hamill yelled:

"Daaaad! I've told you, don't follow me to work! Good grief!"

In the next clip, he threw up his hands and asked:

"What does it take to get recognized around here?"

Then he tried switching to a bright white t-shirt with a picture of Mark Hamill on it—with his name under the photo. He started striking model poses, still standing next to the star. An occasional person side-eyed him, but none paid him any particular attention.

At the end of Hamill's experiment, a woman commented on his shirt, saying that was Mark Hamill. She was on a video call with her brother, who pointed out that she was talking to the real Mark Hamill, but when she asked him about it, he denied it and said he only looked a lot like the Star Wars actor.

She then confessed:

"I would have totally believed you if you said that you were!"

They then took a selfie together, and she joked that she was going to tell everyone that she'd met the real Mark Hamill anyway.

As she walked away, her brother could be heard saying:

"That was totally Mark Hamill."

You can watch the video here:

When Hamill appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel was incredibly supportive, and the crowd loudly cheered for him. Kimmel reassured him that he only needed to show up at the studio to receive a ton of much-deserved recognition.

Despite the lack of recognition, fans were tickled by the experiment and Hamill's ongoing sense of humor.

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

@jimmykimmellive/Instagram; @markhamill/Instagram

Some people really struggle with recognizing faces out of context, especially those seen on television shows or in films, and Hollywood Boulevard is a fast-paced, bustling sort of place, both of which worked against Hamill.

But one thing is certain: whether people recognized him in real-time or not, the real ones know who he is and will always be ready to cheer for him.