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.
Before Christensen was cast as the character, several big stars were in talks for it, as he recently told Empire. One of them was Leonardo DiCaprio. When filmmaker George Lucas spoke to the Titanic star, the actor believed he had no chance of landing the role of Anakin.
Christensen told Film Magazine: “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 it finally worked out.”
“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.”
The actor continued: “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.”
Christensen recently appeared in front of the camera again as Skywalker in the two Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Ahsoka”. Four new “Star Wars” series are scheduled to appear on Disney+ this year. A film based on “The Mandalorian” series has also been announced.