Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor required a lot more than “The Force” when he first battled Darth Vader in thein the upcoming Disney+ series show Obi-Wan Kenobi. McGregor reprised his role as Jedi master. And Hayden Christensen picked up the lightsaber once again after the Skywalker trilogy as Darth Vader.
Ewan McGregor’s First Encounter With Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader
In an interview with Total Film Magazine, this is what Ewan McGregor had to say about his first encounter with Darth Vader:
“I’ve never met Darth Vader. “I had rehearsed the scene with Vader, but not with the helmet on or anything like that. When we came to do the scene, when they shouted ‘action’, he had to come from behind me. I turned around, and fucking Darth Vader was coming at me. It was like I was six again. I’d never acted into Vader’s helmet. I’d never looked him in the eye.
“It scared the shit out of me,” he continues. “I’m not joking. It gave me a proper jolt of absolute fear. I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not acting. That’s real. I’m really, truly frightened right now.’ And the same thing would happen with the Stormtroopers. I’d worked with Clone troopers before, but so many of them were CGI. I never worked with Stormtroopers, and, again, I was like seven years old again. Because when you’re actually faced with a Stormtrooper, with a blaster, it’s like: ‘Fucking hell.’
“It’s like actual childhood memories of being scared. That’s how deeply it’s in us. I’ve acted for 30 years, and I’ve never been genuinely frightened when I’m acting frightened… But I had moments on this that were genuinely quite scary. It’s so funny.”
What Kenobi Director Deborah Chow Said About Christensen’s Darth Vader
Director Deborah Chow had similar reactions seeing Vader. She said,
“There was a moment of silence, collectively, when he first came onto set, “Just having Vader standing in front of you is a crazy thing. It’s an amazing thing, but it’s very intense when you first start doing it.“
Chow previously told Entertainment Weekly that it was an intense experience dealing with the character of Vader in the spin-off. She further adds,
“The first time I saw him in costume and the full thing going, he’s towering over me. He’s like literally almost twice my size, t’s really intense to have such an iconic character, and then to be directing him and to be doing new scenes with him. So I do remember poor Ewan on that day, he’s like, ‘What am I, chopped liver by comparison right now?’”
Obi-Wan Kenobi will stream on Disney+ on May 27.
