Hayden Christensen spoke about filming one of the most shocking moments in Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith, where he yelled at a child. Even though it was intentional, he later regretted it.
In an interview on February 23, 2024, with Empire, Hayden Christensen discussed his role as Star Wars villain Darth Vader.
He was also asked about a scene in Revenge of the Sith, in which Anakin Skywalker approached the Jedi initiates and then murdered them.
When the interviewer asked how this moment had affected him over the years and whether children were afraid of the actor since then, Hayden Christensen revealed details about filming the scene.
Here you can see a trailer for Star Wars Episode 3:
“When we were filming the scene, we had difficulties”
As the actor recounted, the opposite was true, instead of feeling fear, the children felt positive excitement because they got to meet the famous Star Wars character:
“The kids seem to forget about this scene when they meet me! There’s no fear or intimidation. They’re just excited to meet Anakin.”
He further praised the scene in the film and considered it a brave step by George Lucas, precisely because it was so shocking.
In this YouTube video you can see the scene again:
However, during filming, they had the problem that the one boy who speaks to Anakin in the scene did not react strongly enough to the threat. So Hayden Christensen had to help out a bit and scare the child actor:
“When we were filming the scene, we had difficulties getting the desired reaction from the boy. So, I yelled or growled at him because we needed a real moment where he was scared. This gave us the reaction we needed, and the scene really works well.”
You can read more about Hayden Christensen here with our colleagues from Filmstarts: This boy later became a “Star Wars” star: Would you have recognized him?
After that, the interviewer expressed sympathy for the boy who was yelled at by Darth Vader himself.
Hayden Christensen agreed and said: “I saw him years later. I said: ‘I’m sorry for how that went.'”
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