If you know one thing about Anakin Skywalker, it’s that he turns to the Dark Side. If you know two things about Anakin Skywalker it’s that he turns to the Dark Side and he really doesn’t like sand. His feelings on sand are well known, and endlessly meme-able, but it turns out actor Hayden Christensen doesn’t feel that differently, and honestly, I get it.
A clip from a few years ago of an interview Hayden Christensen did at Star Wars Celebration has recently gone viral on TikTok once again which reveals the actor's views on sand. Anakin Skywalker’s lines about how he hated sand in Attack of the Clones have been the butt of jokes over the years, but the actor says he gets why his character hated the sand, saying…
I’m not such a big fan of it myself. Although, if it leads to the water I can tolerate it, but Anakin came from a desert planet, so I understood his contempt for it.
Honestly, I get it. Most of our experience with sand comes from going to the beach, and while a lot of people love the beach, does anybody really love sand? It is rough and it does get everywhere. At least we get to enjoy an ocean as part of dealing with sand, but that’s something Anakin Skywalker never got to enjoy on Tatooine. Imagine a planet that was just endless beach, but no ocean. Who would still like sand if they had to live there for any length of time.
While this video is a few years old, it’s great to see Hayden Christensen and the fans actually enjoying Star Wars together, finally. The prequels were widely criticized when they were first released, and Hayden Christensen, being the key character in two of them, received a good portion of that criticism. Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks, has admitted he contemplated suicide considering the hate his character received.
More recently however, the prequels have been re-evaluated and now the movies are seen as, at best, pretty good, and at worst, not worth getting upset about. Hayden Christensen has said it's been heartwarming to see the prequels embraced, and the actor has gone on to reprise his role in two different Star Wars series for Disney+ and appear at conventions where crowds, like this one, welcome him warmly. Check out the full clip below.
@galacticempirehayden ♬ original sound - GalacticEmpireHayden
What the future holds for Hayden Christensen in the galaxy far, far away is anybody’s guess but it's a good bet he'll continue to appear both in and out of character in the world of Star Wars. And keep an eye out the next time you’re visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, because he’s been seen there too.
