Hayden Christensen.

Canadian actor Hayden Christensen (; born April 19, 1981[1]) His portrayal of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the Star Wars film and television series brought him widespread fame. He first appeared in the prequel trilogy films, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), and later reprised his role with a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and as the main antagonist in the Disney series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) The upcoming Disney series Ahsoka (2023) will also feature him in a return to the role.

Christensen started out in the industry when he was just 13 years old, first in Canadian television. He later expanded to American television. His early films include The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Life as a House (2001) both directed by Sofia Coppola, for which he received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Sam and Shattered Glass (2003, as Stephen Glass). Christensen has been nominated for multiple awards, including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He has also won the Trophée Chopard at the Cannes Film Festival. Awake (2007), Jumper (2008), Takers (2010), and Little Italy (2018) are just some of his other notable works in both mainstream and indie film.

Early life

Vancouver, British Columbia is where Christensen was born to Alie, an American speechwriter, and David Christensen, a Canadian computer programmer and communications executive. His Danish grandfather was born in Sweden, and his Swedish and Italian grandmother were born in Italy. Christensen is the middle child of four; her older brother Tove, older sister Hejsa, and younger sister Kaylen are all actors. He would visit his maternal grandmother, Rose Schwartz, for the summers on Long Island [1, 3]. [4]

Christensen graduated from Unionville High School, a public institution located in the city of Markham in the Canadian province of Ontario. In high school, [5] he excelled at both provincial and national levels as a hockey and tennis player. [4] He trained at both the Actors Studio and the Arts York drama program while living in New York City. When his older sister got cast in a Pringles commercial, he tagged along to her agent's office and soon found himself being offered commercial roles, too. In 1988, he landed a commercial for Triaminic cough syrup. [6]

Career

1993–2005

Christensen began acting in September 1993, when he was just 12 years old, in a supporting role on the German-Canadian television series Macht Der Leidenschaft/Family Passions. [7] The following year, he had a small part in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. [7] Between 1995 and 1999, he was in a number of movies and TV shows, such as Harrison Bergeron, Forever Knight, Goosebumps, The Virgin Suicides, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

He became more well-known for his role as a sexually abused adolescent who turns to drugs on the Fox Family Channel series Higher Ground in 2000. [7][8]

Christensen's portrayal of a misunderstood adolescent in the 2001 film Life as a House garnered him Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations in addition to the Breakthrough Performance of the Year award from the National Board of Review. The performance, however, did not garner much attention from the general public. [9][10][11] Christensen first appeared on stage in London in 2002 in This Is Our Youth, starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Anna Paquin. [12]

Shattered Glass, published in 2003, tells the true story of journalist Stephen Glass, who was exposed as a fabricator of stories while working as a writer for The New Republic and other publications, and went on to earn him praise. After watching Glass, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Hayden Christensen is sensational as Glass, finding the wonder boy and the weasel in a disturbed kid flying high on a fame he hasn't earned." Christensen first appeared on Broadway in 2005, for a 10-minute stint in a play, and [15] he has since become a familiar face.

He participated in 2005's "24 Hour Plays," New York City's annual charity event. [16]

Star Wars

On May 12, 2000, Christensen announced that he would be starring as an adult Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), Skywalker was previously portrayed by Jake Lloyd as a child in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) When casting for the role of Christensen, director George Lucas chose him from among 1,500 other people who were considered. "needed an actor who has that presence of the Dark Side," Lucas is quoted as saying about his decision to cast Christensen. This was crucial in establishing the plot of Anakin Skywalker's downfall and rebirth as Darth Vader that Lucas was trying to tell.

Instead of having another actor don one of the original sets of Vader armor worn by David Prowse, Christensen asked Lucas if a special Vader suit could be constructed to fit his own body during production of Revenge of the Sith. As a result of Lucas's approval, Christensen was fitted for a costume that included extensions to make him taller than Vader's typical height of 6 feet, 6 inches (1 m). (Height: 98 Meters) However, James Earl Jones, who made the voice famous in the original trilogy, provided a dub for him as the "robotic" Vader. [19]

Christensen was used as a replacement for Sebastian Shaw in the force ghost of the redeemed Anakin Skywalker in the DVD release of Return of the Jedi from 2004. In [20], we see one of the most divisive shifts in Lucas desired for Anakin's "inner person" to revert back to his pre-Dark Side self. The fact that this was done without Christensen's knowledge was confirmed by Lucasfilm in the special "Return of the Jedi: What has changed?" [23] Despite Christensen's protests, this was indeed the case. ", as commemorated on the canonical website for the DVD releases of 2006 [24]

Critics were divided on Christensen's performances in Episodes II and III,[25][26][27][28], but later reviews have praised his work, noting that it was largely influenced by Lucas' directing and the dialogue. [29]

Christensen has been featured on two separate "People" lists: "50 Most Beautiful People" and "Teen People." ' These are the 25 Youngest, Most Popular Celebrities in the Entertainment Industry Right Now Episode III earned him the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain [30]. [31]

2006–2018

In 2006 and 2007, he starred in the films Factory Girl, opposite Sienna Miller and Guy Pearce, and Awake, opposite Jessica Alba, about a man who remains awake but paralyzed during heart surgery. In Jumper, released on February 14, 2008, Christensen co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, and Rachel Bilson as a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport. In the same scene from New York, I Love You, [34][35] Bilson and Christensen starred together once more. Virgin Territory, in which Christensen co-starred with Mischa Barton, was released on DVD in North America on August 26, 2008. The film, which was inspired by The Decameron, follows a group of people as they take refuge in a Tuscan villa during the Black Plague. [38]

Thandiwe Newton and John Leguizamo joined Christensen on the Brad Anderson-directed horror film Vanishing on 7th Street in October 2009. Takers, a crime drama starring Idris Elba and Paul Walker, was released in the United States on August 27, 2010. [39][40] Christensen had a starring role. Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson have co-starred in four films, the latest of which is Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey.

Christensen filed a lawsuit against USA Network in 2010 alleging that the network had stolen his idea for the series Royal Pains. Claims in the lawsuit include that Christensen pitched USA on a show called Housecalls, which is very similar to the defendant's show. Christensen claims that he was never informed that a parallel program was being developed during the meeting. Although a federal judge initially dismissed Christensen's lawsuit in 2011, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this decision and remanded the case back to the district court in June 2012, which was seen as a legal victory for Christensen. [44]

The Russian company Enjoy Movies announced the formation of Glacier Films, an alliance company with Christensen and his brother Tove on May 20, 2013, during the Cannes Film Festival. Glacier Films plans to produce eleven $1 million "micro-budget" films over the course of three years. 5M each American Heist, starring Christensen, Adrien Brody, and Jordana Brewster, began production in June 2013. This film is an adaptation of Steve McQueen's The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. He co-starred with Nicolas Cage in the 2014 American-Chinese-Canadian action film Outcast. [46]

Christensen co-starred with Kate Bosworth and Michael Polish directed the 2015 film 90 Minutes in Heaven, which was adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name. Untöt, a horror film about Nazi zombies in World War II, began production in 2015 with Christensen in the lead role. First Kill (2017), in which he co-starred with Bruce Willis, was released that year. In 2018, he co-starred with Emma Roberts in the Canadian-American romantic comedy Little Italy and also appeared in the drama The Last Man.

The Star Wars saga has returned in 2019.

In 2019, Christensen reprised his role as Anakin Skywalker with a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. [48] Christensen also received a voice credit as Anakin Skywalker jointly alongside Matt Lanter for the penultimate episode of the final season of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars entitled "Shattered" despite the fact the dialogue used for the episode spoken by Christensen was reused archival audio from Revenge of the Sith According to a report from October 22, 2021, Christensen will also be returning to the role of Ahsoka on the Disney series. [50]

The Disney limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, in which Christensen portrayed Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, premiered in May of 2022. Compared to his performance in the prequel trilogy, [51][52] he received largely positive reviews for his portrayal. He was featured in the Disney Day, September 8, 2022 documentary Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return. [54]

Intimate sphere

Christensen began dating Rachel Bilson, who co-starred with him in the 2007 film Jumper, and the couple went on to become engaged. They exchanged engagement rings on Christmas Day, 2008. After splitting up in the middle of 2010, [55][56] they started seeing each other again a few months later. Bilson gave birth to their daughter on October 29, 2014. [57][58][59][60] Christensen and Bilson's divorce was finalized in September 2017. [61] [62]

Located near Uxbridge, Ontario, Christensen's farm was a 2007 purchase. In 2008, he said that he had been doing his own repairs and remodeling on the property while also studying "livestock, crops, and agricultural machinery." Christensen released a men's clothing line with Canadian retailer RW&Co that was influenced by his farm in November 2013. [65]

Christensen, a diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fan[66], appeared in a PSA for Do Something's Teens for Jeans Campaign in 2008. Besides being the face of Lacoste's newest fragrance, Lacoste Challenge, he has modeled for Louis Vuitton[67] and other brands' campaigns[68]. In order to bring more attention to RED's fight against AIDS in Africa, he was featured in their Lazarus Effect Campaign. [70][71]

Filmography

Film

Television

Recognition through both awards and nominations

References

Linked external resources

• Internet resource for fans of fantastic literature
• A Movie Website
• Canada's official online information gateway