In the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Hayden Christensen played a troubled boy who became one of the greatest villains in the galaxy. However, for the actor, making Star Wars was a lot more fun. He seems to have really enjoyed it, possibly too much. The actor says that he had some trouble in filming the lightsaber battles in the film because he had a tendency to add his own audio effects. Christensen says...
I had been conditioned from a very young age to make the sound effect when I'm swinging a lightsaber. I know this is something that Ewan [McGregor] maybe struggled with a little bit too. It was a difficult habit to break. And I remember on a couple of occasions George, you would come over after we had filmed a fight scene and in a very encouraging way you [George Lucas] would say, 'Hayden, that looks really great but, I can see your mouth moving and you don't have to do that. We add the sound effects in afterwards.' I was just so focused I wasn't even aware I was doing it.
Hayden Christensen made his return to the galaxy far, far away when he took the stage at Star Wars Celebration Orlando today during the opening 40th-anniversary panel alongside Star Wars creator George Lucas and the Emperor Ian McDiarmid. While there, he admitted that making the Star Wars prequels was a childhood dream come true, and as such, he did some reverting to childhood whenever he took up a lightsaber.
We can't say we blame the guy. Most of us would probably be doing the same thing if we found ourselves wearing Jedi robes holding a lightsaber on the set of an actual Star Wars movie. The prequels were a surreal thing for fans to experience, one can only imagine how people who were fans who ended up in the movie felt about the experience.
While The Star Wars prequels are given a hard time for the most part. You wouldn't have known it from the reception that Hayden Christensen received at Star Wars Celebration today. while it probably wasn't the loudest reception on the stage (that likely went to Harrison Ford who arrived later) he was warmly welcome by all the Star Wars fans in attendance for the four-day long event. At the end of the day, the prequels are still Star Wars and if you're attending Star Wars Celebration Orlando it's because you have a particular passion for the franchise, even the prequels couldn't do much to diminish that.
It was great to see Hayden Christensen back on the Star Wars stage. Whatever we think of the prequels, he is a vital part of the franchise that so many of us love. We're sure he has a million more great stories to tell and we hope we'll get to hear more of them this weekend. Our own Sean O'Connell is in attendance at Star Wars Celebration Orlando all weekend so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any breaking iStar Warsi news from the show.
