Bill Hader has some pretty deep geek bonafides, starting with his earliest credit, as a production assistant on the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy.
Since then, the SNL vet logged viral imitations of both Jabba the Hutt, and Luke Skywalker’s Tauntaun from The Empire Strikes Back on Conan, which apparently led to teaming with J.J. Abrams on both Star Trek: Into Darkness, and voicing the cute rolling droid BB-8 in Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“That was just JJ being nice,” the Addams Family 2 star and Barry Emmy winner insists to ABC Audio of the latter credits.
“J.J. Abrams is always nice to me, and has me coming in to do these little cameo things, like in [Star Trek], and in Star Wars and stuff.”
“And then for the rest of my life I have people running up to me with BB-8 toys for me to sign,” Hader laughs.
“You know, like, I was just operating the thing!” he says of the droid, for which Hader is credited as a “voice consultant.”
“‘Like you coulda done that,'” he recalls joking with Abrams.
Still, Hader insists, “But it’s cool, it is neat to be involved with those things and to be someone they call for that stuff.”
That said, with lifelong Star Wars fans like directors Robert Rodriguez, Bryce Dallas Howard, and of course show creator Jon Favreau working on The Mandalorian, Hader wondered when he’ll get the tap.
“Hm, yeah, I know. I haven’t gotten a call for that,” he says, acting as if he’s insulted.
Given that ABC Audio is owned by Disney, we assured Hader we’d put in a good word for him with the Mando folks. “Get it out there, man!” Hader laughed. “Get me in there!”
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