The Force wasn't strong in Hayden Christensen.
In truth, the Force is not strong with many of the actors who have long past to the galaxy a ways far away. While getting the risk to famous person within the Star Wars franchise might make some actors feel like they were given the Golden Ticket, it's extra like a demise sentence, really.
It's surprising to see most of the major characters from all 9 films hated their time in the franchise, basically as a result of what it did to their careers. Notice the way you did not see a lot of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and the rest of the legacy players post-Return of the Jedi? The identical thing happened to the actors who got here after them.
The handiest actors who were left unscathed, who controlled to salvage their careers were Samuel L. Jackson, who beloved his time as Mace Windu, Natalie Portman, who was railed for her performance but stored her career, Ewan McGregor, who's reprising Obi-Wan, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson and of course Harrison Ford, who begged George Lucas to kill Han Solo off constantly all through his time as the hero.
John Boyega did not go away unscathed; he even thinks the franchise has affected his love life. Neither did Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binx), Ian McDiarmid, and the 2 actors who played young Anakin, Jake Lloyd and Christensen. What's with playing younger Anakin? It's like a cursed position.
But curiously enough, Christensen did not surrender performing because Anakin ruined his career. In fact, Christensen most definitely would have pop out unscathed as his two different co-stars Portman and McGregor did, if he wasn't his personal worst enemy, this is. Maybe he was seduced by the Dark Side, and that's why his career went down the Sarlacc pit.
Star Wars Brought Him To The Global Stage
When Lucas first began casting for an older Anakin Skywalker, he had 1,500 actors to go through.
Everyone from Ryan Phillippe to Paul Walker, Colin Hanks, Heath Ledger, James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Eric Christian Olsen, Erik von Detten, Chris Klein, Jonathan Brandis, and Leonardo DiCaprio tried out for Anakin.
But for some explanation why, Lucas settled at the somewhat unknown Christensen as a result of he "needed an actor who has that presence of the Dark Side," and he apparently had it. We're no longer certain if that is a praise or not. Lucas picking Christensen wasn't a total wonder; he is always cherished choosing unknown actors for his films.
Christensen had thus far earned credible roles in Sofia Coppola's indie film, The Virgin Suicides, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Sam in Life as a House in 2001. Anakin took his stardom to the following level.
But like everybody else who starred within the prequel trilogy, Christensen wasn't given a lot to paintings with. His traces had been either tacky or so blank that he couldn't do a lot to encourage any kind of emotion into them.
His efficiency wasn't utterly his fault, but unfortunately, audience blamed him for acting terribly. For his performances in each Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Christensen received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.
But realizing that his function within the franchise was once obviously getting mixed critiques didn't encourage the same response from him as his co-stars have been having. While they have been all dragged in the course of the mud and complained about it, he praised his time as Anakin, and as Screen Rant wrote, "found a very annoying, almost Anakin Skywalker-esque, reason to be unhappy."
He Had Imposter Syndrome After Anakin
Instead of pondering that Anakin had ruined his career, Christensen idea it gave him an excessive amount of status that he couldn't live as much as. Almost like he had imposter syndrome.
"I felt like I had this great thing in Star Wars that provided all these opportunities and gave me a career, but it all kind of felt a little too handed to me," Christensen told the L.A. Times. "I didn’t want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave."
Since he felt that he hadn't really earned his repute (even if his status resulted from the franchise itself and his unhealthy acting), he made up our minds to take a step back from acting. So either method, the franchise debilitated his career, even though it was ultimately as much as him whether he wanted to make use of his repute as a jumping-off level or a loss of life sentence.
But even if there have been giant gaps in his career, he used to be nonetheless acting. Coming out of Revenge of the Sith, he took roles in Awake (2007) and Jumper (2008). He took two years off, then came back with Takers and Vanishing on 7th Street. Four years later, he returned with American Heist and 90 Minutes in Heaven.
So a ways, he's satisfied together with his lower profile. "You can’t take years off and not have it affect your career," he mentioned. "But I don’t know - in a weird, sort of destructive way, there was something appealing about that to me.
"There was once something behind my head that used to be like, ‘If this time away is gonna be destructive to my career, then so be it. If I will come again afterwards and claw my way back in, then perhaps I’ll really feel like I earned it."
Now, ironically, he's set to return to the galaxy far far away and reunite with McGregor on the new Obi-Wan Disney+ series. It's interesting to hear how the actors from Star Wars felt about their time in the films and their experiences after. Sometimes an actor has the stones to revive their careers after a huge franchise; sometimes, they don't. But in Christensen's case, it was like he turned into his on-screen son, Luke, and fled to Ahch-To.
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