GL vs. HC take on how the Tusken Raider confession scene should have been done

I second PadmeLeiaJaina's advice. The novel is written moreso from Padme's perspective. In fact, I think Salvatore was told to write it this way by lucasfilm or GL himself. The book goes into greater detail on everything, unfortunately that would have translated into a 3 hour movie so you don't get to see all of that stuff.

 

I don't understand the people who think Hayden seems like a pompous jerk. I vaguely remember the "IT" EW magazine w/ the article w/ him. I don't remember thinking he seemed like a jerk. I thought he was adorable actually, with how he reacted to the news. If people think JediGirl's quote makes him seem pompous, I think they are looking at it incorrectly. Hayden was most likely just pointing out that GL does care about what his actors have to say and that he is willing to work with them, that he's not just "using" his actors blindly.

The more articles I keep reading with HC, I'm more impressed with his dedication to acting as an art form. He mentions in the newest SW Insider that his favorite part of the acting process, isn't actually acting, but pouring over the scripts, line by line, determining how each line should be read. And how he spent practically every weekend while filming AOTC, at his apartment watching the OT and TPM over and over to work on incorporating speech inflections, mannerisms, and poses of Vader into Anakin.

You compare that to Natalie who read the script, then learned her lines a couple nights before the shoot, and it just makes you appreciate the effort he put into the role.

 

And how he spent practically every weekend while filming AOTC, at his apartment watching the OT and TPM over and over to work on incorporating speech inflections, mannerisms, and poses of Vader into Anakin.

He definitely did a great job with that, as the Vaderisms thread points out. I don't think it's easy to step into an established role (unless you're Ian McDiarmid, and the role was already yours anyway ), and he's stepping into a role where he has to take three different actors into account (Lloyd, Jones, Prowse) when he thinks about the particular spin he wants to put on Anakin at this young adult stage in his life. I'm very glad Hayden made a conscious decision to carefully try to integrate these things, and I'm glad that he (and GL) are committed enough to the portrayal of Anakin that they both put the work in together on it. The effort shows.


I think Hayden has a terrific future ahead of him. He's too talented and dedicated to acting as a craft to fade away after Ep. III is done. I don't know if anyone's going to be the next Harrison Ford, as far as box office success goes, but I think Hayden is on his way to a great career.

 

"You compare that to Natalie who read the script, then learned her lines a couple nights before the shoot, and it just makes you appreciate the effort he put into the role. "

That has no bearing on an actor or there dedication. Some can over prepare. Some work better fresh. Learning lines has nothing to do with performance. Natalie works more on stage than most actors her age and is probably good at memorizing her lines. Remember: Marlon Brandon never learned his lines. He read cue cards taped to other actors.

 

PadmeLeiaJaina, Ami-Padme, I completely agree. He was sick at the time- I happen to remember the first line of that article cause it was funny. it said "Darth Vader wants a bowl of chicken soup and his mommy." -or something to that effect. We forgive him!

JediGirl- the novel is definatly worth the read. It happenes to be well written as well as giving loads of flesh to the story

 

That has no bearing on an actor or there dedication. Some can over prepare. Some work better fresh. Learning lines has nothing to do with performance. Natalie works more on stage than most actors her age and is probably good at memorizing her lines.

Excellent point. To each their own.

 

Mar17swgirl: I like your sig!

"What the hell kind of name is Yossarian anyway?!"
"It's Yossarian's name, sir."

 

Remember: Marlon Brandon never learned his lines. He read cue cards taped to other actors.

He also tried to convince Donner that his character in Superman would work better if he just dubbed the lines in and used a toaster instead.

 

Thanks for all the great input about the book. I am definitely going to buy it.

I remember reading an interview with Natalie a few weeks ago and she was asked about working with Hayden. She said that she thought he was a great actor but that he would often get frustated and sometimes mad at her for "goofing around" during some of their scenes. He apparently wanted to take things more seriously a lot of times and she wanted to clown around. She said that she was a lot more relaxed and had a much better time filming AOTC than TFM. Anyway, I thought this was kind of funny and perhaps shows a little bit of insight into their different approaches.

On the other hand, I also read that when they filmed the "I hate sand" scene that Hayden purposely flubbed his lines or smiled at the camera so that they would have to reshoot the kissing scence several times. Apparently GL finally said 'Hayden, you have to stop doing that!".

 

I read about that once, apparently he would smile and give a thumbs up to the camera after they kissed. Here's hoping they put that on the blooper reel on the DVD!

 

Weezer:

I think Brando was kidding. Though you never know with that guy.

Ami Padme:

The article I referred to where he was sorta jerky wasn't the EW "It" article. I think another poster traced it to the NY Times. Again, what bothered me was when the interviewer asked if he was risking stereotyping like Mark Hamill had, and Hayden gave a terse laugh. That and his attitude in the article as a whole struck me as a little arrogant for someone who's done so little, comparatively. Anyway, I think I also said he's seemed much more gracious since.

 

I have only read one interview in which Hayden was less than gracious, about Mark Hamill in this case. In it he mentioned the movie 'Corvette Summer.' He seemed to feel that was not such a great choice to follow up Star Wars, and had more to do with the perception that Mark's career didn't take off than any involvement in the OT. It did seem less than kind but who knows what his day was like, or how many times he has been getting the comparison and being asked about life after SW? Not an excuse for arrogance but you better have some to start with, otherwise you aren't going to survive the ups and downs of the business.

One other point about GL's take on Anakin's character compared with the actor's. I noticed in the Empire interview that Natalie said GL constantly directed Hayden to act younger and be more whiney. This was to make Padme appear older and echo the relationship in TPM and, I imagine, to have more of an arc to play into Ep3. Apparently Hayden hated having to do it. Yeah, who wants to play 'more whiney?' LOL It's also something a lot of people and critics have complained about. But this was the director's take on the character at this point in time. Hayden obviously followed direction, but it seems logical why he wanted to play the breakdown in the confession scene as a natural consequence of Anakin's immaturity and naivety.

 

What I love about this post is that I've read all the same articles, and I keep hearing the words and recognizing them!

At any rate, I think the word almost everyone interviewed uses to describe Hayden is "focused". there's also a lot of "dedicated" "passionate"-my pesonal fav "quiet" "shy"

any others?

 

My FAVORITE quality attributed to HC is in this "Artsy" mag called "Contents" (and I do mean "Artsy..." YUCK!!! Such a load of ol rubbish but I digress)... it called him the first "layable Darth Vader"...


*blush*, no argument here!!!

I just hope HC doesn't go the rout of another brillant young actor, River Phoniex.... Such a waste...

 

"On the other hand, I also read that when they filmed the "I hate sand" scene that Hayden purposely flubbed his lines or smiled at the camera so that they would have to reshoot the kissing scence several times. Apparently GL finally said 'Hayden, you have to stop doing that!". "

That's amusing! Well if you're all referring to articles written a couple years ago I think Hayden's grown up quite a bit since them. I think any actor who suddenly received the golden role of a lifetime would develop a swelled head, at least for a while.

Every article, interview I read with him now, he just seems to be very dedicated to his craft, and is interested in making intelligent decisions on his career. Choosing "Life as a House" as the followup film to AOTC shows that Hayden's not interested in becoming some generic Scream Teen boy actor. I read recently that he has also worked on adapting novels to screenplays, which again shows more range and dedication to the film-making process than most young actors today. It will be interesting to see what happens w/ the production company he and his brother are creating.

EDIT: Darthbreezy - that's funny. I get the feeling Hayden has a pretty tightly knit family life. I've never heard of him being wild. Staying and living in Canada should do him wonders to not become another wasted drugged out actor.

Sigh! River...what a waste..

 

PadmeLeiaJaina - I agree with you. I just read today that Greg Kinnear is going to star with Hayden in a movie called Shattered Glass which will be produced through their production company that they formed (Forest Park Productions). Shooting is to begin in August in Montreal. Sounds like he is well on his way to bigger things besides being the "It" boy of the month.

I don't know if any of you saw Hayden on The Tonight Show last month but I thought that he seemed a lot more relaxed than the last time he was on there the year before promoting LAAH. He even breezed through the "Next we will be seeing your face on boxes of tampons" comment from Jay Leno - referring to Hayden's face and SW in general being promoted on everything that he looked at in the grocery store.

The interviewer commented at the beginning of the Arena article that Hayden was polite, confident and thoughtful. Occasionally we get flashes of his humour: dry and sarcastic and often as his own expense. Hmmm. I wonder if this is what sometimes come through in his interviews that people might mistake for arrogance.

 

As far as Christenson being more serious than Portman, the role of Anakin was the most sought after role in the industry. Plus the fact that he's less known and has more to prove, that the character is more complex and that he has the perormances of 3 other actors to incorporate into his own, sure he's going to be more serious.

I thought it was played well and Lucas was right. He had the entire movie to be immature. This was the one scene where he had to pull off 'evil'.

 

It'd be great if HC got the part of Indiana Jones' son in Indy 4.

Also, I wouldn't be totally surprised if HC plays a large role at Lucasfilm in the years to come. He seems to be really interested in film-making and not just acting. He also doesn't seem to be real hot about the all the Hollywood "games."

 

The moment where he turns around and says "And not just the men..." was chilling. I know that there was nothing visually different about Hayden's face, but it just seemed like there was. He seemed paler and thiner to me--like an evil person is always portrayed in film.

 

PadmeLeiaJaina
"Staying and living in Canada should do him wonders to not become another wasted drugged out actor."

Well, Again, according to the article, his mum still makes him mow the Lawn when he comes home !!!


Go get him mum!!!

 

Hayden "gets it" and he understands how it's important for him to keep his head on straight and not go off the deep end. I think he truly cares about his acting and doesn't want to get involved in drugs, booze, etc. At least I hope he doesn't.

 

I think both Portman and Christensen will do fine in their careers, with each making a few extremely well-thought of films. It would be interesting to see them paired in a film in the future, although I don't know how willing either would be to do it, since many people would see them as Anakin and Padme and no one else.

 

How "serious" and "dedicated" can Hayden be when he's deliberately flubbing a take just to cop a feel off the leading lady? Sounds pretty unprofessional to me. Not that I blame him...

 

Bresson, you're just jealous methinks!