Hayden Christensen: Darth Victory

Robin Gurland laughs at hearing how Christensen experienced their interaction. "I thought I was giving Hayden really strong signals," she says. "I was totally spun around by him. He's a stunning actor with so much going on inside. What set him apart was just that he has--and this is such an overused phrase--'it,' that certain something that means you can't take your eyes off him no matter who he's doing a scene with."

After the meeting, the Skywalker camp informed the Christensen camp that Lucas liked the actor, but wasn't convinced he could look and act convincingly mature enough to also tackle Episode III (due in theaters in 2005), in which Darth Vader is supposed to be 30 years old. Although a date and location for a screen test were set up for him and Portman, Christensen pretty much felt he was just along for the ride.

"Up until three weeks before the test, everyone was saying the part was going to Leonardo DiCaprio," says Christensen, "and that they were just doing the tests to convince the public they were actually looking at other people. The impression I was under was that the role was always meant for Leonardo. But they told me George liked me because I had talked to him on some kind of real level, that I didn't treat him like the almighty George Lucas. When you get to the level of success George has gotten to, it's hard not to have people laugh at a joke when it's not funny. I wasn't doing that."

When Lucas did a screen test of Christensen and Portman, he had them read scenes that hinted at the passionate quality of the relationship between Anakin and Padmé. An insider who saw the test said, "Watching it, you could feel the electricity between Hayden and Natalie. That didn't happen with the other guys who tested." For his part, Christensen says he found Portman professional. "She was very much, 'Hi, nice to meet you, let's go to work,'" he says. "She was mostly off making calls on her cell phone.

"The whole time, I never really thought it was going to happen for me," Christensen continues. "I was just so enthralled I'd gotten that far. Natalie told me that Ryan Phillippe had also tested, and I remember the day I got almost definitive word that Ryan was the one George Lucas had chosen."

Christensen should well remember that particular day, because the following day, his management team called him in Toronto and roused him from sleep with the news that he'd snagged the role.

"Whenever you're casting, you're first and foremost looking for a good actor," says George Lucas, "somebody who is very talented and has a certain quality about them. Then you go to the next level where you're looking for somebody who fits the character. And in this particular case I was looking for somebody who was very boyish, funny, sexy, personable and young, but someone who had an edge to them. I had to cast with the third film in mind--when Anakin is much more like Darth Vader."

Having agonized over the audition process for several months, Christensen went into a semi-altered state when he got the part. "I have an apartment on the 22nd floor of a high rise and I got out of bed, went out on the porch and stood in the morning breeze for probably an hour," he recalls. "I didn't know what to feel, it was so overwhelming. When I came back in, my roommate was standing there and I just made a gesture of raising a lightsaber. He gave me a huge hug, jumped on me and started screaming profanities. He was a DJ and we've got a turntable at our place, so I called my mom and my roommate put on the Star Wars album and turned the volume up full, so that was the first thing she heard when she picked up the phone. She started crying and I heard this domino effect all around my house of people screaming."

Once the euphoria wore off, did panic set in? "I just said to myself, These are smart people who must know what they're doing by giving me the part,'" Christensen says as he shakes his head. "In the end, I wasn't nervous at all but a lot of that had to do with me finally finding the character of Anakin, who I saw as someone who existed in a very dark place. I was able to shut out all my insecurities and just be in that powerful place. I think that's how I was able to overcome the fear and anxiety of being in a role that comes with such overwhelmingly high expectations."

Given the sort of director George Lucas is, Christensen's self-reliance was a valuable asset. "George doesn't have time to sit down and talk with you for an hour about your motivation, your tactics, what you need to accomplish," he says. "There's so much else for him to think about. When he gave me direction, it was extremely specific and helpful. You're taking direction from the man who envisioned your character and dreamed up this whole crazy universe. So, on many levels, if you're able to get a 'We got that one,' then you know you got it. There's no questioning him."

Still, the strains of working against blue screens and opposite actors in fur suits and latex masks take their toll. There were rumors from the set of Episode II that Natalie Portman felt so lost and upset during filming that she broke down and cried at one point. McGregor, word has it, periodically became downright unruly. True? "I don't know anything about Natalie crying," says Christensen, "but, in terms of Ewan, yeah, that's kind of the impression I got, too. I can't really comment on his frustrations but I think they're obvious ones. I don't blame him for anything he did. Ewan is a highly trained actor who comes from the theater. For him to be challenged and to have to deal with the struggles that he does sometimes feel are unfair--like having to submit to and understand that on a film like this, our involvement as actors, even though it's extremely necessary, doesn't have the same importance here as it does on a different kind of film. Making a film like this demands a certain level of trust among everyone involved, especially actor to actor, because so much of its coming to life happens at ILM with special effects. So much is superimposed later, you're never sure what they're going to put there and you have to trust that they're not going to make you look stupid. It's a great leap of faith required."

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