A villain is made, never born. Whenever we see some of the most iconic antagonists the film industry has to offer, we are often left wondering about their backstories. What made the person choose to go to the dark side willingly? What was that one thing that kickstarted their villain arc? Thanks to Hayden Christensen, fans got to learn exactly that about one of the greatest villains of all time – Darth Vader.
In the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Hayden Christensen became the Chosen One to become the face of young Darth Vader, a.k.a., Anakin Skywalker. And although he didn’t necessarily always receive kind words from the audience, he managed to pull through. During a recent interview, Hayden Christensen recalls how he wanted a particular scene to go perfectly, which ended up with him having to shout at a little kid.
Hayden Christensen Shouted at His Young Star Wars Co-Star
While this sounds a bit extreme, rest assured that Hayden Christensen was not having a diva moment while filming Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In fact, he was merely trying to help the little kid ace his reaction to Anakin Skywalker’s sudden motion.
In Revenge of the Sith, a crucial scene sees Christensen’s Anakin step into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant full of “younglings” and proceed to slaughter them. Before carrying out the monstrous act, though, a young boy comes up to Anakin and says, “Master Skywalker! There are too many of them. What are we going to do?” The next moment, Anakin turns on his lightsaber which startles the youngling and he suddenly moves back. In order to get this perfect reaction from the young actor, Christensen decided that he would have to shout/growl at him to scare him into performing the scene.
While talking to Empire, Christensen opened up about how young fans of Star Wars are always excited to meet him, despite his character killing off many children. Recalling the above-mentioned scene, Christensen stated,
“Kids seem to forget about that scene when they meet me! There’s not any fear or intimidation. They’re just excited to meet Anakin. There was a lot of talk about us doing that scene, and I love that George did it. It was a bold move. And it’s shocking. When we were filming that, we were having a hard time getting the reaction that we wanted from the kid. And so, I shouted, or growled at him, because we needed a genuine moment of him being startled. It got the response that we needed, and it makes that scene work really well.”
Since the kid was not aware of the impromptu decision taken by Christensen he must have obviously been frightened at the moment. The actor confirmed that when he met his young co-star years later, he apologized by saying, “Sorry about how that went.” Well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!
The Young Actor from Star Wars Backs Hayden Christensen’s Claims
Back in 2021, Ross Beadman, the actor who played the role of the kid in Revenge of the Sith gave an insight into the story himself. It’s always fun to hear both sides, isn’t it? Taking to Reddit, Beadman urged fans of Star Wars to ask him any questions about his time on the film.
One user asked, “What was with that little tumble back you did? It looks like a sort of accidental twitch that they liked so they went with the take.” Confirming Christensen’s recollection of the moment Beadman replied, “From what I remember Hayden shouted “Boo!” and that startled me to add to my fear in the scene.”
Beadman’s honest tumble added so much depth to the scene as you could see the kid suddenly realize that his Master Skywalker was up to no good. Honestly, it made the scene so much more heart-wrenching! Clearly, Christensen knew what he was doing.
You can stream Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith on Disney+.
