Many of you might not realise this, but Barry and IT: Chapter Two star Bill Hader has a key role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As the "voice consultant" for BB-8 alongside Ben Schwartz, the actor has found himself embraced by a passionate fandom...and opportunistic autograph hunters.
As you might expect, the actor is frequently asked to sign merchandise featuring the loveable droid but has now explained why he no longer does so.
"I do not sign them," Hader stated in an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "Autograph people don’t like me. I won’t sign things. 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."
"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," the actor continues. "[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.’'So now, I just kind of blanket, like, I’m not signing any of this s**t."
Honestly, that's understandable, and there are many YouTube videos out there of actors being besieged by large boards covered in Funko Pop or action figure packaging, all with the aim of those later being used to turn a profit on eBay.
In the same interview, Hader would go on to point out that he thinks the credit he receives for supposedly voicing BB-8 is undeserved.
"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 recalls. "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." In other words, that wasn't Hader or Schwartz bringing BB-8 to life in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker!
There's a strong chance we'll see the droid again now that Daisy Ridley is returning as Rey in a new Star Wars movie, but here's hoping Hader is given a shot at playing a real character from this Galaxy Far, Far Away in the not-too-distant future.