Hayden Christensen was an enormous star of the early 2000s largely due to his function as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader within the Star Wars motion pictures.
His on-off relationship with actress Rachel Bilson, with whom he has a baby, put him much more within the highlight earlier than he seemingly retreated from Hollywood.
He was final again on TV screens after reprising his most well-known function the 2022 miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi and final yr’s Ahsoka.
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Christensen was born in Vancouver, Canada, on April 19, 1981, to mum Alie, a speechwriter, and David, a pc programmer and communications govt. He’s certainly one of 4 youngsters, with all three of his siblings all pursuing performing careers,
Whereas nonetheless a baby, he accompanied his older sister to her agent’s workplace and was solid in a Pringles industrial, which led to different promoting campaigns.
He made his performing debut at 12 within the 1993 German-Canadian tv collection Macht Der Leidenschaft/Household Passions.
The next yr, he received a small function within the movie Within the Mouth of Insanity, earlier than profitable roles in movies and TV collection, together with Goosebumps, The Virgin Suicides and Are You Afraid of the Darkish?
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His function within the 2001 movie Life as a Home earned him reward and Golden Globe and Display screen Actors Guild nominations for finest supporting actor. The following yr he made his London theatre debit earlier than starring within the movie Shattered Glass.
Superstardom was simply across the nook when he was solid as Anakin Skywalker within the 2002 movie Star Wars: Episode II – Assault of the Clones.
Throughout an interview with Empire this yr, Christensen recalled the primary time he heard concerning the function.
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The solid of Star Wars: Then and now
“I used to be 18 and I obtained a name from my agent saying that they have been casting for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars and I believed, ‘Wow, how cool.’ But it surely simply appeared too huge,” Christensen stated.
“And I keep in mind asking my agent, ‘Is there possibly one other function that they are additionally casting proper now you could put me up for? as a result of Anakin type of appears unattainable’. And there was not. So I threw my title within the hat like everybody else.”
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The casting director thought of about 1500 actors for the function of a lifetime, together with Leonardo DiCaprio, earlier than director George Lucas lastly chosen Christensen.
Christensen recalled, “I had heard that they’d met with Leonardo and a bunch of different actors. That simply confirmed my thought that the function would go to a different actor. By way of your entire auditioning course of I had informed myself, from day one, that I wasn’t going to get the half. It simply wasn’t a risk.”
Lucas stated on the time he selected Christensen as a result of he wanted an actor who has that presence of the ‘Darkish Aspect’, which was important to inform the story of Anakin Skywalker’s fall from grace and transformation into Darth Vader.
The film, which additionally starred Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala, was shot largely in Sydney’s Fox Studios, and was a success.
Christensen stated McGregor “took me beneath his wing” throughout filming “as a result of he knew it was all actually new to me”.
“We shortly turned very shut buddies, however I additionally actually regarded as much as him,” he stated.
Whereas it’s rumoured he dated Portman, it has by no means been confirmed. Nevertheless in 2023, he hinted they have been as soon as shut throughout an interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
“You already know, you need to be a bit bit [in love] for those who’re actually going to consider your self within the function,” he informed the outlet. “We’re fairly good buddies now, however , it is one thing that you simply simply must type of consider.”
Natalie Portman open to reprising Star Wars function
Christensen and Portman went on to reprise their roles within the 2005 movie Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
In 2002, he made Folks journal’s annual checklist of “50 Most Stunning Folks” and in 2005, was named one its “50 Hottest Bachelors” and positioned on Teen Folks’s “25 Hottest Stars Beneath 25” checklist.
After his Star Wars roles, he appeared in Awake and Manufacturing unit Lady, earlier than starring within the movie Jumper, a few younger man who can teleport.
Throughout filming in 2006, Christensen started a relationship together with his co-star, Rachel Bilson, of The O.C. fame.
They turned engaged on Christmas Day, 2008.
They labored collectively once more on the 2008 movie New York, I Love You, earlier than they cut up in mid-2010.
On the time, they blamed the actual fact she was primarily based in LA whereas he most popular to reside on the farm he had purchased close to Ontario, Canada, in 2007.
They rekindled their relationship just a few months later, however stayed largely out of the limelight and infrequently attended occasions collectively.
They welcomed their first little one, daughter Briar Rose, on October 29, 2014. She was named after the Disney princess within the 1959 movie Sleeping Magnificence.
In September 2017, the couple separated for good.
Christensen himself stated in 2008 that he most popular life on the farm the place he learnt about livestock, crops and agricultural equipment. He additionally stated he was renovating the farm’s homestead himself.
Since then, his performing work has been sporadic, showing in simply 5 movies since 2014, of which one was a vocal cameo as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Most lately, he appeared within the TV miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi, which aired in 2022, and in 4 episodes of the Disney+ collection Ahsoka.
Christensen, now 43, has by no means married and has not been publicly linked with anybody since splitting from Bilson, with whom he shares custody of Briar.
He lately informed a MegaCon viewers in Orlando, Florida, that she was but to look at the Star Wars film that made him a star as a result of she would relatively watch re-runs of a decade-old Disney TV present, Liv and Maddie.
Christensen, who has a reported web price of about $18 million, splits his time between his farm in Canada and a cabin retreat on the outskirts of LA.
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