Hayden Christensen thought he would lose his role in the Star Wars franchise to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Hayden Christensen, known for his role as Anakin Skywalker (and Darth Vader) in Star Wars, recently revealed that he was afraid his iconic role would go to another well-known actor – Leonardo DiCaprio.
Leonardo DiCaprio was in talks for the role of Anakin Skywalker
Before Christensen was cast as the iconic character, several big stars were in talks for the role, he recently told Empire Magazine. One of them was Leonardo DiCaprio. When filmmaker George Lucas spoke to DiCaprio, the actor believed he had no chance of getting the role of Anakin. Christensen told Empire: “I had heard that they had met with Leonardo and a bunch of other actors. That confirmed my assumption that the role would go to another actor.”
He continued: “Throughout the entire audition process, I had told myself from day one that I wasn’t going to get the part. There was simply no option. And I think that probably helped me a lot because it freed me in a lot of ways. And so it was really a surprise for me when I got the role.”
“I saw the film and thought it was great”
Regarding the less positive feedback regarding the prequel films, he told the magazine: “The character was criticized, my performance was criticized, and that sucked. But I also felt like I had some context that maybe helped a little bit. When ‘Episode I’ came out, there was a lot of excitement that they were doing a new ‘Star Wars,’ and it was going to be the backstory of Darth Vader.”
“But I had friends who were upset about the character starting as a young child. I saw the film and thought it was great. He was everything I wanted and more. And I didn’t understand the discrepancy between the film I saw and the negativity in some of the reviews,” the actor continued.
In the two series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Ahsoka” from Disney+, Christensen recently appeared in front of the camera again as Skywalker. Four new “Star Wars” series are scheduled to appear on Disney+ this year. A film based on “The Mandalorian” series has also been announced.