Mark Hamill knows the Force is real, and he offered personal proof on Wednesday that the spirit of Carrie Fisher is always with him. A random painting in a London hotel carried more than a passing resemblance to one iconic aspect of Fisher’s Princess Leia from the very first Star Wars film.
On Wednesday, Hamill posted a photograph of himself on Twitter specifically pointing out a strange detail in a painting hanging in his London hotel room. “Look who I found looking over my shoulder in a painting on the wall of my London hotel room,” he said. “Coincidence? I DON’T THINK SO!” Hamill added the hashtag #AlwaysWithMe, clearly in reference to Fisher’s tragic untimely death in December of 2016. The painting itself depicts a vaguely abstract figure of a woman, but the hairdo is unmistakably reminiscent of Princess Leia’s famous “cinnamon buns” from Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977.
In her 2016 memoir, The Princess Diarist, Fisher spoke frankly about her relationship with the Leia image — and that hairdo — in the penultimate chapter “Leia’s Lapdance.” And though she struggled with several aspects of fandom, she nonetheless threw her entire support into her return to the franchise with Force Awakens and Last Jedi. “VII [The Force Awakens] is the epitome of Star Wars,” she wrote. “I do its bidding and trust its direction.”
That same book is also co-dedicated to six specific men, one of whom is Mark Hamill. (The other five are George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Irvin Kershner, Rian Johnson and Harrison Ford.) In it, Fisher writes fondly about her relationship with Hamill. Reminiscing about her bond with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, Fisher linked the explosion of Star Wars to Beatlemania. “Mark, Harrison and I were the only people having this experience. So, who do you talk to that might understand?”
This isn’t the first time Hamill has paid tribute to the late actress. In December of 2017, Hamill posted a picture to his Instagram and wrote: “No one’s ever really gone.” Obviously, when Hamill and Fisher filmed The Last Jedi together, neither had any idea it would their last film together.
So, is Carrie Fisher’s spirit really following Mark Hamill around? In another section from The Princess Diarist, Fisher wrote this: “I pulse with each beat of the Force. Its strength is mine.”
