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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

PT Anakin's Vader voice

Discussion in 'Prequel Trilogy' started by Bor Gullet, Feb 18, 2018.

  1. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2018
    I like Hayden's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in AOTC.

    I like AOTC, it's my favourite of the prequels, for all its flaws, I just really enjoyed seeing multitudes of Jedi in action at the end, I loved Kamino, Jango, the clones idea, Count Dooku and the general interaction between Obi Wan and Anakin. I thought it all wondeful and original. But I really loved Anakin in it, he was courageous but hot-headed, passionate but there was a darkness even to his attraction to Padmé, the potential for obsession and moral depravity. Just what I always imagined a young Vader would be like.
    But a small point that I appreciated was how Hayden used a slow, deep delivery for his lines that for me, if modulated, COULD sound like JEJ behind he mask. I think this was a choice, either on Hayden or George's part and has led to unfair criticisms that he was wooden and stiff in the movie. I really feel that he was trying to foreshadow Vader's diction and vocal timbre as well as his physical movements. What was awesome was the scene where he goes after the Tusken Raiders with the Duel of the Fates playing, and when he returned with the body of Shmia. That was pure Vader.

    What do people think ?
     
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  2. Sith Lord 2015

    Sith Lord 2015 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 2015
    My thoughts exactly! =D=
    As I have written countless other times, I have always felt Hayden perfect in the role of young Vader. I never previously had any picture in mind what young Vader should look and be like. But when I saw Hayden in AOTC I just KNEW he was the perfect Anakin. Good to read some positive comments on AOTC for a change!:cool:
     
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  3. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    I don't hear it as Vader from the OT's voice although that was undoubtedly the intention. His voice just begins to sound strange in ROTS. All behaviour is learned behaviour. From whom does he learn this behaviour?

    It would mean also that Vader's lungs, tongue and larynx are all still healthy enough to form words in the exact same way and with the exact same timbre as before he was burned, and that the mask is only required to amplify it. Which doesn't make sense at all, since we know he can hardly breathe on his own without the mask etc.
     
  4. wobbits

    wobbits Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 12, 2017
    I read an article awhile back that talked about how Hayden studied/worked to try to emulate JEJ way of speaking for Vader. I really appreciate all the effort he put into this. The duel choreography with Ewan, bulking up for the suit, doing all the stunts he could so George could have the facial shots he needed, etc.

    ROTS edges out AOTC for me though.
     
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  5. Sith Lord 2015

    Sith Lord 2015 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 30, 2015
    Do you know any people in real life whose voice sounds exactly the same after 20 years? I don't. Suit or no suit, a guy at around 60 just doesn't sound the way he did when he was 25. Aging process? And who says his voice amplifier or whatever it is hasn't been replaced or retuned before the OT? Over 20 years no parts of his suit have to be replaced?
    Finally, when Vader takes off his mask for Luke he doesn't speak in Jones' voice either but Sebastian Shaw's. Strangely I haven't heard any complaints about that. ;)
     
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  6. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    A guy at around forty doesn't sound that different from what he did at 23. There weren't any complaints about Shaw because, once the mask was removed, it was understood by the audience that the voice produced by the mask was an affectation and one that the mask imposed on him and obscured or distorted Anakin's true identity (his voice already being utterly changed by the damage done to his body anyway). ROTS seems to imply that the mask merely amplifies the voice vader alrady had prior to being burned.

    Perhaps if it was their intention to show that Anakin had already affected a James Earl Jones voice in a consciously narcissistic way. I dunno. As an indication of someone having turned evil, it's pretty lame and cliched.

    The truth is that Jones' delivery is far more cadenced and filled with credible emotions (plural) than Christensen's weird stilted monotone. I don't wish to get on Hayden's back but that's the main issue. If it was meant to sound like the Vader to come but without the amplification he'd later have then it failed.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
  7. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    I don't think he sounds, or meant to sound, EXACTLY the same, but I appreciate the effort he made to have at least the baseline cadence sound somewhat similar.
     
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  8. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    It just seems odd that we're now supposed to think that Anakin is transformed into the suited Vader we see in the OT, except for his voice which is just an amplified version of the voice he had just before the suit. That he's now more machine than man. That the man he was before the suit is gone. Except for his voice. [face_thinking]
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
  9. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    But you would have to agree that his voice after going into the suit is significantly different enough that people who knew him as Anakin wouldn't immediately recognise it? So it has been transformed to a large degree. But what I'm trying to say when I say I appreciate Hayden's performance is that he wasn't speaking rapidly or in a too 'modern' way so as to portray that this was just Vader's natural rhytmn and diction anyway, for me it's just a nice touch of continuity. On a separate note, I found that JEJ actually speaks much faster in ANH compared with ESB and ROTJ where he seems to slow it down and go for the more Dracula/movie monster delivery. Probably because he hadn't any idea that the character would go on to become so popular and inhabit people's minds as this unstoppable villain when he first voiced him?
     
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  10. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    That's probably likely. But we can never know since nobody who knew him ever interacts with him without the knowledge of who he is. Not in the movies anyway. If anyone was going to be able to tell, it would be by the way that Vader delivers his lines.

    I think it's just one way that the two characters and trilogies were melded together that produces unhelpful questions. The fact that Jones's delivery changes from movie to movie, as you correctly pointed out, might have made them think twice about that.
     
  11. Sith Lord 2015

    Sith Lord 2015 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 30, 2015
    I disagree. Besides we aren't talking about 40 but around age 50, Vader's OT age. Anakin was around 25 in ROTS, and there are 20 years between ROTS and ANH, and that's not even considering all those modifications that may have been made to the suit, also disregarding that Vader the Sith intentionally wanted to sound different to distance himself from his former Anakin identity. I know I sounded different when I was 20. Why wouldn't Vader?
    Strangely I never found Hayden's voice to be monotone in any way. On the contrary, he has a kind of unique intonation that I didn't hear in other characters. Hard to put a finger on it but that's the impression I got. Since I'm neither American nor Canadian I have no idea if this just reflects Hayden's Canadian pronunciation or is something he consciously worked on to clarify his "Anakin-ness".
     
  12. Daxon101

    Daxon101 Force Ghost star 6

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    Jan 7, 2016
    I imagine it would be fairly difficult for Hayden to emulate Vader.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2018
  13. Deliveranze

    Deliveranze Force Ghost star 6

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    Nov 28, 2015
    I agree with you but I believe canonically Anakin was 23 in ROTS and 46 in ROTJ. :p
     
  14. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    I dig that people appreciate the foreshadowing. But I guess it's largely down to taste, whether you like what Hayden's delivery or not. But the logic is also unsound. Anakin didn't want to be put in a suit or behind a mask at all. I don't agree that he desired to have his voice processed never mind reliant on a piece of technology no matter what it made him sound like.
     
  15. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    Jake Loyd also had a fairly slow way of speaking - for whatever reason be that his acting ability or how George told him to deliver the lines, I won't get into that - so the slow speech patterns do match up from the prequels to the OT. When I first saw Hayden speaking in the lift with Obi Wan at the beginning of AOTC I straight away 'bought' that this was the Anakin of TPM ten years later.He sounded like him, and,( to my ears anyway), sounded like a young Darth Vader. In any event, I'm satisfied that SOME effort was made to stay in continuity than none being made.
     
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  16. Delta Scepter

    Delta Scepter Jedi Master star 1

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    Jun 5, 2014
    Apparently, in the ROTS teaser, the line "Yes, Master" was done by Hayden (albeit processed) and it fooled everybody into thinking it was James Earl Jones.
     
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  17. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    Fascinating. It's a tough task being the middle actor. Hayden had to try and pull off being simultaneously a convincing younger body of Dave Prowse, younger JEJ voice, and also an older verion of Jake Lloyd.

    I reckon he did a laudable job.
     
  18. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    Dave Prowse did not play the older body of Anakin Skywalker/Hayden Christensen or vice versa. He played a half man-half machine. Hayden played a human. Vader's physique was artificial.
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2018
  19. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    What? It just looks like Dave Prowse is moving around, walking normally. He has a normal, if quite brisk gait, his arm gestures and everything else are pretty much fluid,limber and human. Just looks like a man in a space suit, which is what he was originally meant to be. He doesn't seem to be TRYING to play a half man half machine at all.
    Isn't it not until ROTJ anyway that Obi-Wan talks about him being more machine than man?
     
  20. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    What? It just looks like Dave Prowse is moving around, walking normally. He has a normal, if quite brisk gait, his arm gestures and everything else are pretty much fluid,limber and human. Just looks like a man in a space suit, which is what he was originally meant to be. He doesn't seem to be TRYING to play a half man half machine at all.
    Isn't it not until ROTJ anyway that Obi-Wan talks about him being more machine than man?
     
  21. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    He is more machine than man. Doesn't matter when Obi-Wan declared him so.
     
  22. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    Sorry for the double post The Powers Above.

    Yes, I know he is more machine than man. But Prowse didn't seem to know that and was just walkling around normally, and so I feel Hayden did his best to emulate that gait. I GET what you're saying, that he's trying to emulate the gait of a machine body even though he's not yet machine. But it still EVOKES Vader for us as the audience, and you could go one step further and say that the organice brain might impose its former and comfortable gestures, gait and movement on the bionic limbs? But eh, this was really just about voice and my tipping my hat to Hayden. Do you think he failed in portraying a young Vader?
     
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  23. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    I get that it was what they were likely aiming for. But it never made a lot of sense and didn't really work for me.
     
  24. ewoksimon

    ewoksimon Chosen One star 5

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    Oct 26, 2009
    I love "You underestimate my power" in ROTS. You can imagine James Earl Jones saying the exact same thing.
     
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  25. Bor Gullet

    Bor Gullet Jedi Knight star 2

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    Feb 8, 2018
    Fair enough, Man.