More than two decades after landing the career-changing role of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Hayden Christensen is opening up about her experience.
The 42-year-old actor was just 19 when he landed the role of Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
Christensen is now opening up about the entire process, from audition to filming and all the negative reactions to the film in a wide-ranging interview with Empire.
The actor revealed that he was just 18 years old when his agent told him about a possible audition for the iconic character, although he thought she was too old for him.
He revealed that he was only 11 or 12 years old when his older brother introduced him to the characters through all his action figures and, later, the movies themselves.
More than two decades after landing the career-changing role of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Hayden Christensen is opening up about her experience.
The 42-year-old actor was just 19 when he landed the role of Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
“I was 18 and I got a call from my agent saying they were casting Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ But it seemed too big,” Christensen admitted.
And I remember asking my agent, “Is there maybe another role that they’re also casting right now that you can pitch me for? Because Anakin seems like something unattainable.” And there wasn’t. So I put my name in the hat like everyone else,” he added.
Director George Lucas reportedly cast more than 1,500 actors to play the older Anakin, replacing Jake Lloyd as the younger Anakin, one of whom was Leonardo DiCaprio, who is seven years older than Christensen.
‘I had heard that they had met with Leonardo and a group of other actors. “That confirmed my idea that the role would go to another actor,” he admitted.
“Throughout the entire audition process I told myself, from day one, that I wasn’t going to get the role. It just wasn’t a possibility. And I think that probably helped me a lot, because it freed me in a lot of ways. And it was a real surprise to me when I got the role,” she said.
Prior to Episode II, Christensen had appeared in a handful of films and guest-starring roles on television shows, the most notable being 1999’s The Virgin Suicides and 2001’s Life As a House.
To say that Attack of the Clones was his most important film to date is an understatement, although Christensen was up to the challenge.
‘The scope of the opportunity, the enormity of it all, was exciting to me. Obviously it was a little daunting too, but there’s a saying: “Pressure is a privilege.” I felt very lucky to have him. “I was really excited to be able to express George’s mapping of how someone goes from good to evil,” she said.
“I was 18 and I got a call from my agent saying they were casting Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ But it seemed too big,” Christensen admitted.
And I remember asking my agent, “Is there maybe another role that they’re also casting right now that you can pitch me for? Because Anakin seems like something unattainable.” And there wasn’t. So I put my name in the hat like everyone else,” he added.
He added that he became “close friends” with Ewan McGregor, who plays young Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that he “took him under his wing” for the production.
When the film was released, while it was quite financially successful ($653.7 million worldwide on a $115 million budget), it received quite a bit of negativity from fans.
“Because Star Wars has had the cultural impact that it has, these characters almost become public domain, where people feel like they own them. The character was criticized, my performance was criticized and that part was shit,’ he admitted.
‘But I also felt like I had some context that maybe helped a little bit. “When Episode I came out, there was a lot of excitement because they were making a new Star Wars, and that was going to be Darth Vader’s backstory,” he said.
“But I had friends who were upset because the character started out as a little boy. And I saw the movie and I loved it. It was everything I wanted and more. And I didn’t understand the disconnect between the movie I saw and the negativity in some of the reviews “he admitted.
‘In a way, I think that kind of criticism comes from a certain failure in your own suspension of disbelief. “If you’re going to sit in a theater and the opening reel starts with, ‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,’ that’s setting the stage that anything is possible,” he said.
‘These people don’t need to sound or behave like we might expect. And if you sit back and think that you are understanding something that corresponds to our current zeitgeist, then you are preparing yourself for something else,” he added.
While there was quite a bit of negative fan energy surrounding the prequels when they were released in theaters, fans have now begun to embrace his performance, and the actor always receives a standing ovation at convention appearances.
He added that he became “close friends” with Ewan McGregor, who plays young Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that he “took him under his wing” for the production.
When the film was released, while it was quite financially successful ($653.7 million worldwide on a $115 million budget), it received quite a bit of negativity from fans.
‘But I also felt like I had some context that maybe helped a little bit. “When Episode I came out, there was a lot of excitement because they were making a new Star Wars, and that was going to be Darth Vader’s backstory,” he said.
While there was quite a bit of negative fan energy surrounding the prequels when they were released in theaters, fans have now begun to embrace his performance, and the actor always receives a standing ovation at convention appearances.
‘It has been an extraordinary experience. And a very moving one. “The journey I’ve been on with Star Wars over the last 20-plus years…has been a wild ride, and where we are now is really meaningful to me,” he said.
‘I think those films have held up well over time. It feels like a vindication of the work we did. Everyone who worked on those movies thought we were part of something special. We all wanted to do our best work and we cared deeply about it. And seeing the fan response now is great,” he said.
He has since returned to play Anakin/Darth Vader in the Disney Plus shows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, for which he is very grateful.
“When we finished doing the prequels, I felt like that was it and my journey with the character was over. So to come back now and do more with Anakin and Darth Vader was an incredible opportunity. I’m very grateful for the work I was able to do. The scenes I was able to do as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan were huge for me. Being able to add a little more connective tissue to the character and close the gap with Vader a little more is something that is very worthwhile. And the scenes that “I got to do Anakin on Ahsoka, they were things on my wish list that I didn’t even know I had,” he said.
