Bill Hader is opening up about what initially led him to stop giving autographs on Star Wars merchandise.
The Barry actor, who is credited as a voice consultant for droid BB-8 with comedian Ben Schwartz in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, told Josh Horowitz on a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that “Autograph people don’t like me. I won’t sign things.”
He even remembered the moment he decided to stop signing items for people. “I used to sign stuff, and then one time I saw somebody and they had their kid come up to me to sign a BB-8 thing and it was three in the morning,” Hader recalled. “I was leaving the Inside Out premiere and then we went to an after-party thing and it was super late and this guy kept his kid up all night. [He was like], ‘Go over there so he’ll sign it so I can sell it online.’”
“I was like, ‘That’s fucked up,’” he added. “And so now, I just kind of blanket, like, I’m not signing any of this shit.”
The Trainwreck actor said although he thinks “it’s very sweet” that director J.J. Abrams attributed the BB-8 character to him, he also feels like he can’t take credit for the role.
“I came in and did like voice stuff for it that didn’t work,” Hater added. “Then, he brought me in later and said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this.’ It was like a … talk box thing and then I did that. And the reason he hasn’t had me come back is because anybody can do that. … It’s like a machine that you can operate.”
He continued, “I did some voice stuff that just didn’t work, you know. … I’m not really sure what Ben [Schwartz] did, but I just know that was my experience doing it.”
