METHOD ACTING: Hayden Christensen Growled And Scared The Shit Out Of A Child On The Set Of "Revenge Of The Sith"

That's my Vader! I've written many a blog already about how I'm pretty much out on Star Wars at this point. I don't really wanna be, but I'm just so tired of the oversaturation and being let down by Star Wars products. With that said, I'll always have a nostalgic attachment to the prequel era and Hayden Christianson, especially. I feel like the guy was unfairly treated. De Niro couldn't have delivered the lines he was given with emotion or bravado. I've seen him give great performances. He's a good actor. If any good has come from this prequel renaissance over the last several years, it has been cool seeing some of these actors, like Christensen and Ahmed Best, who were treated like shit by the fans, get their love and affection years later. He's been making the rounds lately for...I guess I'm not really sure, but it's good to see him back in the spotlight. He's been reminiscing about his experiences playing a young Darth Vader, and told a pretty funny story about how he intimidated a child on the set of "Revenge Of The Sith."

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"Kids seem to forget about that scene when they meet me! There’s not any fear or intimidation. They’re just excited to meet Anakin. There was a lot of talk about us doing that scene, and I love that George did it. It was a bold move. And it’s shocking. When we were filming that, we were having a hard time getting the reaction that we wanted from the kid. And so I shouted, or growled at him, because we needed a genuine moment of him being startled. It got the response that we needed, and it makes that scene work really well."

Before I go any further, I just need to go on a little tangent and talk about how stupid it is that children could be trained as Jedi in Star Wars. If they were in their teenage years, I would understand it, but I remember, even when I was young, thinking that it was silly in "The Phantom Menace" when they told a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker that he was too old to begin training. Are these guys supposed to come out of the womb with a lightsaber in their hands? George should have cleaned that up.

Anyway, say what you will about Christensen's performance in the prequels (I'll always defend him_ but by the time you got to "Revenge of the Sith," he really did look like a young Darth Vader. There are scary moments in that movie. The shot of him marching up to the Jedi council with the stormtroopers behind him is pretty fucking metal. 

A lot of people lament the fact that Star Wars is responsible for ruining several careers, and I don't know if that's exactly true. There are exceptions to that (Jake Lloyd got permanently fucked up), but in the case of Hayden Christensen, the guy was in two of the biggest movies ever, made his money, left Hollywood, and now he gets to live a life of luxury on a Canadian farm somewhere. That's the definition of the American dream, or, I guess, in this case, the Canadian dream. Good for him.