Hayden Christensen

[Duleeshab]

Yeah but also coz I didn't read all of jjb and just scanned... are they 100% sure?? Coz this is how rumours start... I think his dad must be proud and supportive

 

[Nemova]

Here's the article in which Hayden talks about his father not being too happy about his choice.

Hayden's Darth side
Interview by John Lyttle, Metro Life
16 May 2005


In the final instalment of the Star Wars saga, Anakin Skywalker finally morphs into Darth Vader, cinema's embodiment of pure evil. Hayden Christensen, the actor who plays him, tells John Lyttle why he's attracted to people with something to hide.



Hayden Christensen is wandering around a hotel room in Rome three days before his 24th birthday trying to describe what it felt like to yield to his dark side and finally become Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith, the final chapter of George Lucas's six-part sci-fi saga. The actor chugs on a bottle of mineral water while gamely attempting to describe the scene in which he becomes pop culture's blackest embodiment of pure evil. And it isn't happening. Frustrated, he keeps failing to find the exact word. 'It's the iconic moment. It's Darth Vader. To be totally enclosed in that suit, behind that mask, was extremely empowering. No... Intense? Overwhelming? Cool? I've got it - how about orgasmic?'

In the new film, Christensen gives the single greatest piece of acting in the Star Wars canon - Grand Shakespeare,' hosannahs one source. A bit different from the notices he got when Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones hit our screens in May 2002. Then a bullfrog chorus savaged his performance as the adolescent Anakin Skywalker - the Jedi Knight doomed to become Darth. If the then 19-year-old had once felt 'lucky and blessed' to have landed the part over Leonardo DiCaprio and 400 other hopefuls, he must have felt his luck had run out.

'No, no,' Christensen protests. 'I can recall reading the script and saying to George, "If I play Anakin as on the page - the whiny teenage quality - there's going to be a backlash.'' And there was. But I thought the critics got it wrong. Sometimes they were blasting me for Anakin's flaws. Sometimes the feedback was...' he sighs. 'Sometimes I had to remind myself that George must have seen something in me.'

Indeed. Something else inside the Golden Boy package of blond hair, brown eyes and 6ft 1in frame, perhaps? In terms of his career, at least, what you see with Christensen is not what you get. In Life As A House he was the sensitive goth who rejected A-grades for auto-erotic asphyxiation (cue Golden Globe nomination). In Shattered Glass he impersonated the real-life Stephen Glass, journalistic wunderkind and almost pathological fantasist. The project he's working on in Rome is a comedy - a comedy! - about the Black Death entitled The Decameron. Right now he's mulling over Young Hannibal. Yes, that Hannibal, a budding genius drawn to cannibalism and French cooking. Odd, then, how nearly everyone read his Anakin so wrong. It's not a bad performance, but the performance of someone turning bad.

'I could say that my dark side has been the past five years, about fame and intrigue and really finding out about Hollywood. Except you're absolutely right. I do tainted. It's my thing. I never got to rebel at home or at school. I was well raised. Revenge Of The Sith? Big opportunity to rebel. I've found some very ugly places in myself playing those characters. I'm attracted to people who have stuff to hide.'

Does Christensen himself have stuff to hide? Well, after five years at the white-hot centre of the Star Wars galaxy - 'I've been consumed' - he's learned a few PR tricks. In the early days he was a notoriously lacklustre interview.

He's grown up since and now knows enough to toss journalists a pull-quote - his co-star Natalie Portman is apparently 'a great kisser' - and acts the tease. Ask him about those perennial rumours that he is gay and he bats absurdly long eyelashes.

Push for confirmation of a girlfriend, and all you get is, 'I feel I'm entitled to a private life.'

But the sensitive boy Lucas cast is still there and appears when you least expect it. Suddenly he is talking about his apparently tricky relationship with his father, David. The words tumble out, and boom, you understand why he's perfect casting for both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. After all, what are the Star Wars trilogies all about if not tortured bonds between fathers and sons?

Those conflicts just come wired into a kid with a 'straight-edged, sports-jock father' and 'an artistic, hippy mother' who cutely named her four children Tove, Hayden, Hejsa and Kaylen. Christensen is a triple-A hockey player who also plays jazz piano. A back-slapping guy who has trouble establishing eye contact.

'The most courageous moment of my life was telling my Dad that I wasn't going to university and was going to give this acting thing a go. To him acting is, and always will be, something without much dignity to it. He went to university on a football scholarship and he wanted that for his four children. You have to understand, my Dad believes you have to earn everything that comes to you, and acting, to him, isn't a worthy way of earning. We get on very well, but we'll never be on the same page as far as my career goes.'

It's not like Christensen's father didn't have time to get used to the idea.
His son started acting at eight in a Pringles commercial and graduated at 13 to Canada's No. 1 soap opera, Family Passions. 'I just knew from an early age that I had to reinvent myself,' Christensen says thoughtfully. 'That's what acting is, reinventing yourself. I had to inhabit somebody else's skin, walk and talk like them. I love acting.'

A shadow passes across the handsome face. Knowing he's being watched, Christensen manages a slightly embarrassed laugh. 'I have a plan, you know. Star Wars, this surreal ride, is over. I'll do other roles. And 10 years from now I'll be living on a farm, and I'll be very happy.'

 

[Orchide]

I do feel for him but I am sure he and his father have a great relationship just a different type of one from what he has with his mom- his 'rents are still together and his mom seems really happy so that is my guess.
Alot of parents who aren't in the arts are like this to their children who choose career paths in the arts. I am an actress and my mother isn't exactly approving of it and always slips in little comments and digs. I just ignore it b/c I know she grew up a certain way and that is her limitation.
She just doesn't "get" it. Pretty much any actor or actress I know has similar experiences from one or both parents usually- esp. if their parents are still together and more traditional- like mine are and Hayden's are.
Just my 2 cents...

 

[vix123]

I can respect his father's good intentions of wanting his son to go to Uni, but Hayden's accomplished so much at the ripe age of 24, that if he were my son, I would be over the moon and so proud of him.
I'm sure his dad has come around to him acting by now- he's been doing it for 10 years!

 

[Duleeshab]

^^ I completely agree with both of you

 

[vix123]

another one to add

(DH.net)

 

[Duleeshab]

You can't just post pictures like this girls... my heart cannot keep racing like this

 

[Orchide]

I know
Love your avie Dulee btw and your Gemma one too Vix
Here is another Japan interview- he talks about sports, revenge and missing family...dh.net-
http://media.desiringhayden.net/cinemavoice.zip

I like when he says to the camera the name of the channel- Wow-wow

 

[vix123]

Wowow!!! ed it!!! Thanks Orchide

 

[Duleeshab]

Okay I finally watched all the Japanese videos and they cheered me up lots

The interview with the guy who gives him a robe... it was as facinating to watch him as much as Hayden for totally different reasons (yes Vix I think you are right... he may be on crak )

 

[fairywings]

Oh no, it's getting worse!

My crush, that is, for the oh-so-lovely Hayden. He's so intense. Soo... arrrooogggaaaa!! hehe.

How can you not like his bad-boy vs. good-boy attitude? Hm. He's abso-lutely delish. Yum!

 

[Arafel]

I do feel for him but I am sure he and his father have a great relationship just a different type of one from what he has with his mom- his 'rents are still together and his mom seems really happy so that is my guess.
Alot of parents who aren't in the arts are like this to their children who choose career paths in the arts. I am an actress and my mother isn't exactly approving of it and always slips in little comments and digs. I just ignore it b/c I know she grew up a certain way and that is her limitation.
She just doesn't "get" it. Pretty much any actor or actress I know has similar experiences from one or both parents usually- esp. if their parents are still together and more traditional- like mine are and Hayden's are.
Just my 2 cents...

very true

 

[daddyslittlegrl8]

Okay I finally watched all the Japanese videos and they cheered me up lots

The interview with the guy who gives him a robe... it was as facinating to watch him as much as Hayden for totally different reasons (yes Vix I think you are right... he may be on crak )

I actually thought the japanese guy's reaction was cute. He was guinuely ticked pink that hayden christensen was in his presence. And who could blame him!


I think I would if i ever saw hayden in person. BTW, I love hayden's kinda slow laugh. I don't know if that's the best word to describe but that's what it sounded like at the end of that interview when the japanese guy asked for a hug.

dlg

 

[Duleeshab]

I actually thought the japanese guy's reaction was cute. He was guinuely ticked pink that hayden christensen was in his presence. And who could blame him!


I think I would if i ever saw hayden in person. BTW, I love hayden's kinda slow laugh. I don't know if that's the best word to describe but that's what it sounded like at the end of that interview when the japanese guy asked for a hug.

dlg

the crak comment was a joke

 

[Orchide]

It was a slow laugh of fear
that guy reminds me of a cartoon wound-up toy or on crack like Vix said!
hey y'all, not Hayden related but I won a "caption this" contest on my fave blog's daily contest- actually I have won a few but anonymously- this is the first time I used Orchide- anyway, my caption was reeeel long- haha- and some people complained that I won cuz of the length- boo hoo- write a comment if you want- but don't say I asked you to- heehee-
Its the Lindsay Lohan pic halfway down the pg.- I love her too- my comments are tongue-in-cheek- of course-
http://dlisted.blogspot.com/

 

[daddyslittlegrl8]

the crak comment was a joke

I know it was a joke . I was just saying the japanese guy was so thrilled and i probably would have the same reaction too.

dlg

 

[daddyslittlegrl8]

It was a slow laugh of fear
that guy reminds me of a cartoon wound-up toy or on crack like Vix said!
hey y'all, not Hayden related but I won a "caption this" contest on my fave blog's daily contest- actually I have won a few but anonymously- this is the first time I used Orchide- anyway, my caption was reeeel long- haha- and some people complained that I won cuz of the length- boo hoo- write a comment if you want- but don't say I asked you to- heehee-
Its the Lindsay Lohan pic halfway down the pg.- I love her too- my comments are tongue-in-cheek- of course-
http://dlisted.blogspot.com/

LOLOLOL. I just read some of your captions. Hilarious. You have a sense of humor very similar to mine. Your blog is great.

dlg

 

[Orchide]

silly- its not my blog- its a guy named Michael K's blog.

 

[daddyslittlegrl8]

silly- its not my blog- its a guy named Michael K's blog.

<embarassed giggle> whoops sorry! maybe i'm on crack. LOL.

dlg

 

[Duleeshab]

<embarassed giggle> whoops sorry! maybe i'm on crack. LOL.

dlg

LMAO Karma for you