"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams was joined by Chris Rock Friday eveningfora director's talk at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and it was definitely a fun night.The many topics of discussion ranged from"Felicity" and "Alias" to current favorite shows (Abrams is into "Togetherness" and "Transparent" while Rock is digging "Fargo," "Mr. Robot," and "The Walking Dead"). Of course, by the end of the overhour-long discussion, Rock eventually asked Abrams to discuss "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."Rock said when he starts writing a script, one of his rules is to not start until he knows the ending, something with which Abrams agreed. So Rockasked Abrams if he knew the ending to "The Force Awakens"beforehe started working on it."We knew that, obviously getting to Luke was the whole story," said Abrams. "I was desperate to do the next chunk. We knew it would never fit in this one movie. But, we knew that we had that ending."Abrams described that the moviewas "a tricky thing to do" and continued to explain how it was a bit tough to let Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself, know he had no dialogue in the film."At first, in all honesty, Mark Hamill was a little bit resistant [to do the movie]," saidAbrams as hetold the audience to imagine being Hamill reading "The Force Awakens" script."You get the script to the new 'Star Wars' and you're like, 'Oh, the crawl's good!'" Abrams said of the opening written textto the film. Then, to the audience's amusement, he continued while pretendingto be Hamill. "Page two ... what the f--- is going on here' I'm three pages before the end ... the last [page], What!'"While Hamill reprised hisrole, Abrams said the actorhad some reservationsat first about his inclusion at the very film's end."Well, will it seem silly' Will it be like a joke that he's [Luke Skywalker] standing there at the end'" Abrams said of Hamill's reaction to his role in the movie.It took a little convincing onAbrams' part to reassure Hamill that audiences wouldn't feel duped at the end of the film."And, I said to him, I don't ... think it will," recalled Abrams. "I said, I don't think so. It could be, because [the whole movie's]all about you, it could be this sort of great, fun drumroll up to seeing this guy."Abrams then recountedwhen they were shooting thatsceneon Skellig Michael, in Ireland, and he said the moment he knew it would work."We're up there shooting this scene, and, you know, it's Ireland so it's raining and it's sunny and it's raining ... it's insane. We're up there, in between shots, we're getting this thing [and]I'm looking at him [Hamill] and I realize he's the same age, exactly, that Alec Guinness was when he played Obi-Wan," said Abrams. "And, there he is, I'm looking at him as the sort of mist is clearing, and I have my phone and I put on the 'Binary Sunset' cue that [composer] John Williams wrote.""I'm listening to this music and I'm looking at Mark Hamill wearing these robes and I literally start to tear up and I'm like .. I just know this ending could really work," saidAbrams.Over $2 billion later worldwide at the box office and we'd say it worked, too.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: EX-UNDERCOVER DEA AGENT: What I did when drug dealers asked me to try the product
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