Bill Hader Reveals Why He Refuses to Sign 'Star Wars' Merch

The BB-8 vocal consultant says a late-night encounter with a reseller stopped him from giving out his autograph.

Bill Hader's role as a "vocal consultant" for the beloved droid BB-8 makes him an official part of the Star Wars universe, but don't think about asking for his autograph. In a recent appearance on the podcast Happy, Sad, Confused, the actor revealed that he has a blanket policy to not sign Star Wars merch.

"We'll be on location and there will be these guys with these BB-8 dolls. I do not sign them. Autograph people don’t like me. I won’t sign things," he said, recalling a late-night encounter with a fan that left him jaded.

"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's like, 'Go over there so he'll sign it so I can sell it online.'"

According to Hader, the experience left him wary of signing anything Star Wars-related. "I was like, 'That's fucked up.' So now, I'm just kind of blanket, like I'm not signing any of this shit."

Although Hader had originally tried to do voice work for BB-8, he and J.J. Abrams agreed that it sounded too human-like. Later on, Abrams brought Hader back as a "vocal consultant," where he strapped on a talk box and helped contribute the electronic noises that ended up in the final cut. On the podcast, the actor mused that "anybody can do that" when explaining why he didn't work on subsequent Star Wars films.