All interviews included in this article were conducted in spring 2022.
In Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Arthur Gordon Pym (known fondly by his clients as the Pym Reaper) is a haunted and mysterious character whose presence immediately commands respect — and he gets it. As does the actor who plays him, who goes by the little-known name of Mark Hamill. “I was intrigued by the fact that they would consider me for this part,” said Hamill. “Why would they think of me? That’s thinking outside the box, and I love doing quirky, unexpected things and things that I haven’t done before.”
Hamill’s Pym is the unimpeachable fixer for twins Roderick (Bruce Greenwood) and Madeline (Mary McDonnell) Usher, the heads of the wealthy Usher clan, and their kin, who start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from the siblings’ past. As he cleans up any mess that might arise, one might liken Pym to Scandal’s Olivia Pope. But instead of wearing a white hat, he dons black gloves that keep his dirty hands concealed. “What Mark is doing I haven’t seen him do, and it’s exceptional and quite intimidating in a very cool way,” said Usher’s director and cinematographer Michael Fimognari.
That’s exactly what the exemplary Jedi wanted from a role in one of Flanagan’s horrifically delicious productions. After all, he’s a self-proclaimed Flanafan. “I am an unabashed fan of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and, by the time they approached me for this, I’d also seen Midnight Mass, which was a great departure. The first two were sort of linked in that they’re in the world of ghosts. But with Midnight Mass, he went full horror, and I just loved all three of them,” shared Hamill. “So, at first, I thought, ‘Well, I’d want to watch this.’ ”
He wanted to observe firsthand what went into crafting one of Flanagan’s shows and work alongside the stellar ensemble players. “I shouldn’t start because they’re all so good,” Hamill said. “Carla Gugino and Rahul Kohli and T’Nia Miller and Samantha Sloyan and Henry Thomas… they recur in all of these shows, so just the fact they would consider adding me to the ensemble, I was flattered. There’s nothing better than a big ensemble cast with a bunch of talented actors. They up your game.”
Kohli, who portrays family playboy Leo in Usher, shared that his favorite day on set was meeting the man behind Luke Skywalker. “I’m a big Star Wars fan,” he said. “Mark and his work in those films were the reason that I became an actor. So to come full circle and work with Mark was... I mean, I still kind of freak out about it.”
Hamill’s wife, Marilou, was actually the person who urged him to play the Ushers’ ruthless and amoral attorney after he started reading through the scripts. “I remember after finishing Episode 2, I said, ‘Oh, my God!’ [And] my wife saying, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ I said, ‘You’re not even going to watch this!’ She doesn’t like horror films very much.”
Throughout the series’ eight episodes, Pym is the investigative thread weaving through the aftermath of each Usher’s death, tasked with uncovering what’s happening to the doomed dynasty. “He’s there to collect up the evidence and try and figure out what’s going on, and to also protect the family if there’s any incriminating evidence,” said Hamill. While his character is enabling this “heinous” family, you learn very quickly that you don’t want to get on Pym’s bad side. “He’s very good,” he said. “He’s the minder — he’s been at it for quite a long time.”
As Usher is inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Pym is pulled from the author’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. As a kid, Hamill first learned of Poe through watching films based on his stories, like The Tell-Tale Heart, but he didn’t return to Poe’s source material till Usher came calling. Flanagan didn’t insist Hamill read up on Pym’s namesake story, but Hamill thought, “Why not? I don’t think it’s even 200 pages long.” (Editor’s note: The Dover Thrift Edition is 176 pages.)
Hamill saw Pym’s journey to the North Pole in The Narrative as atypical of Poe, with the author mentioning so many details about the “species of flora and fauna and longitude and latitude,” he cited. “Although the ultimate Edgar Allan Poe moment is [when] they’re at a point in the story where it’s four survivors and they’re starving to death. So they decide to draw straws to decide who they’re going to cannibalize to survive. I said, ‘Oh boy, it doesn’t get more Edgar Allan Poe than that.’ ”
And if you’re not a horror fan, Hamill would still encourage you to give Usher a chance. “I love the idea it’s unpredictable,” he said. “You know, to a certain extent, that this family is doomed, but just the creativity with the way they dispatch people — it’s very clever and it’s beyond ghoulish, and it certainly puts your trivial everyday problems in perspective. You think, ‘Well, at least I’m not that guy.’ ”
Now if you’re somebody who’d refuse a request from Luke Skywalker — or better yet, Arthur Gordon Pym — we pray for that tell-tale heart of yours…
The Fall of the House of Usher is streaming now on Netflix.
