Bill Hader talks openly about a bad encounter that made him reluctant to autograph BB-8 goods. Along with fellow comedian Ben Schwartz, the Barry actor was credited as a voice consultant for the endearing droid BB-8 in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Because of his association with the little guy, fans continue to ask him to sign their Star Wars memorabilia. “I do not sign them,” Hader confirmed on a recent episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Autograph people don’t like me. I won’t sign things.”
He even remembers the precise moment when he lost interest in signing products that would eventually end up on eBay. “You know what it was? 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 said.
“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 f—ed up,'” he continued. “So now, I just kind of blanket, like, I’m not signing any of this s—.” In general, Hader said he doesn’t entirely believe he can be held responsible for BB-8’s popularity as a character.
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“It’s very sweet that J.J. Abrams put my name on it, but I came in and did voice stuff for it that didn’t work,” he explained. “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.”
Hader added, “I did some voice stuff that just didn’t work, so… I’m not really sure what Ben [Schwartz] did, but I just know that was my experience doing it.”