Hayden Christensen Looks Back on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones for Its 20th Anniversary

On the 20-year anniversary of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, StarWars.com interviewed Hayden Christensen about his experience with the movie. Of course, Episode II was the movie that introduced the world to Christensen's Anakin Skywalker.



Before we dive into that, we have recently published a three-part editorial on the movie, so if you haven't checked it out, here is a link to Part 1.



On to Christensen. The actor was initially very excited when he got the role, as he recalls in the interview, and celebrated it with his roommate in a very unique way:

Christensen was, of course, not the first actor to play the role. In The Phantom Menace, a young Jake Lloyd portrayed a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, and obviously, David Prowse suited up as Darth Vader in the original trilogy, with James Earl Jones providing the voice. So there were many sources to draw from when preparing for the character, as Christensen said:

A pivotal scene in Attack of the Clones is when Anakin, after massacring the Tusken Raiders that had captured his mother and were ultimately responsible for her death, confesses his actions to Padmé. According to Christensen, it required a few 'heart-to-heart' conversations between him and George Lucas to get it right:

For Christensen, another takeaway from the experience of filming the prequels was his friendship with Ewan McGregor. This is something that has been all over the marketing campaign for the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show, which is regarded as the reunion, on-screen and off-screen, of two longtime friends. Christensen said the following about what their friendship means to them:

Christensen has not shied away from expressing his love for the movies over the past couple of months. Most recently, during a press event in Berlin, he said that Episode III is 'a phenomenal film', and he shared those feelings with StarWars.com once again:

It's undeniable that the public opinion on Christensen and his portrayal of Anakin has massively shifted over the past 20 years. As both Christensen and Ewan McGregor had said repeatedly over the past couple of months, the fans that grew up in love with the prequels as kids are now being heard loud and clear as adults.



Attack of the Clones will have a panel at the upcoming Star Wars Celebration, to commemorate the 20-year anniversary at 2pm PST on Friday, May 27th. Christensen has not been confirmed as a guest for the convention, but between that panel and Obi-Wan Kenobi part of the big Thursday panel, it would be pretty shocking if he wasn't there.



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