Hayden Christensen faced the lure of the dark side again on Thursday as he posed with his Star Wars villain alterego Darth Vader at a special event at New York’s Empire State Building.
The 42-year-old actor, who played Anakin Skywalker and the ruthless Sith Lord in the Star Wars prequel trilogy from 2002 to 2005, looked delighted as he took on the supervillain and a Stormtrooper during the The event which will take place on May 4.
He cut a dapper figure in an all-black ensemble paired with a gray overcoat as he warmly embraced the soldiers of the Galactic Empire.
The star returned to her roots to mark the March-May 4 campaign honoring the incredible legacy of the Star Wars films.
The Empire State Building will be lit up in honor of the movies Thursday night – with a LEGO display.
Hayden Christensen faced the lure of the dark side again on Thursday as he posed with his Star Wars villainous alter-ego, Darth Vader, at a special event at New York’s Empire State Building.
The 42-year-old actor, who played Anakin Skywalker and the ruthless Sith Lord in the Star Wars prequel trilogy from 2002 to 2005, looked delighted as he took on the supervillain.
Christensen is depicted as Anakin in the 2005 film Revenge of the Sith
The Empire State Building will host a screening of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on Friday, March 22.
The actor was only 19 years old when he landed the role of Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in 2002.
Christensen has now opened up about the entire process, from auditioning to filming to all of the film’s backlash, in a wide-ranging interview with Empire.
The actor revealed he was just 18 when his agent told him about a potential audition for the iconic character, even though he thought it was too big 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 then in the films themselves.
“I was 18 and I got a call from my agent saying they were casting Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars and I thought, ‘Wow, how cool.’ But it seemed too big,” admitted Christensen.
“And I remember asking my agent, ‘Is there maybe another role that they’re also doing right now that you could put me in for?’ Because Anakin seems somehow unapproachable. And there wasn’t any. So I threw my name in the hat like everyone else,” he added.
Director George Lucas reportedly had more than 1,500 actors cast as the older Anakin, taking over from Jake Lloyd as the younger Anakin, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who is seven years older than Christensen.
The star returned to her roots to mark the March-May 4 campaign honoring the incredible legacy of the Star Wars films.
Christensen reprized his role as an elected official while attending the event
On this day, Star Wars took over the Empire State
Christensen posed with his alterego and some Stormtroopers that day
“I had heard that they had met Leonardo and a bunch of other actors. It just confirmed my idea that the role would go to another actor,” he admitted.
“Throughout the whole 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 just freed me in a lot of ways. And so it was definitely a surprise to me when I got the role,” he said.
Prior to Episode II, Christensen had appeared in a handful of films and TV show roles, 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 greatest film to date is a huge understatement, although Christensen was up for the challenge.
“The scale of the opportunity – the enormity of it all – excited me. It was obviously a little intimidating too, but there’s a saying: “Pressure is a privilege.” I just 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,” he said.
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, although it had some financial success ($653.7 million worldwide on a budget of $115 million), it received a lot of negativity from fans.
The star cut a dapper figure while posing with Star Wars characters
The Empire State Building will be lit up in honor of the movies Thursday night – with a LEGO exhibit on display
Christensen is seen as the fallen Anakin in Revenge of the Sith
“Because Star Wars has had the cultural impact that it has, these characters almost become public domain, where people feel a sense of ownership over them. The character was criticized, my performance was criticized, and that part sucked,” he admitted.
“But I also felt like I had some context that maybe helped a little. When Episode I came out, there was a lot of excitement that 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 that the character started as a young child. And I watched the movie and I loved it. It was everything I wanted and more. And I “I didn’t understand the discrepancy between the film I saw and the negativity of certain reviews,” he admitted.
“In some ways, this kind of criticism, I think, comes from a certain failure of their own suspension of disbelief. If you go to sit in a theater and the opening scroll starts with ‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,’ it shows that anything is possible,” he said.
Christensen was only 19 when he landed the role of Anakin
He added that he had become “close friends” with Ewan McGregor, who plays young Obi-Wan Kenobi, and had “taken him under his wing” for the production.
“These people don’t need to look and behave the way you might expect them to. And if you sit back and think you’re getting something that fits our current zeitgeist, then you’re setting yourself up for something else,” he added.
Although there was quite a bit of negative fan energy surrounding the prequels when they were released in theaters, fans have now started to appreciate his performance, with the actor still receiving a massive ovation during convention appearances.
He has since returned to play Anakin/Darth Vader in the Disney Plus shows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, which he is very grateful for.
“When we finished making 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 am very grateful for the work I had to do. The scenes I got to do as Darth Vader on Obi-Wan were huge for me.
“Being able to add a little more connective tissue to the character and bridge the gap a little more with Vader is a very interesting thing. And the scenes I got to do as Anakin on Ahsoka were an item on my bucket list that I didn’t even know I had,” he said.