PT Hayden Christensen didn't leave the movie industry because of the prequels

BTW - I just meant "blame" in the sense that a lot of people have panned his performance. If you liked it that's cool - glad you enjoyed it.

That little story is interesting, hadn't read that before.

 

No problem. To be honest, I'm not really all that crazy about Hayden as an actor overall, though I think he did a good job as Anakin and people were, and are, way too vicious about his performance...and him personally. It's one thing to say his performance is bad; that goes with the territory of being an actor. It's another to actually harass him when he's participating in an event that has absolutely nothing to do with SW, like when he appeared on "The Amazing Race" or whatever it was -- the show had to shut down the message board because certain ahem, people had commandeered as a way to verbally abuse Hayden for "ruining Darth Vader," etc.

 

Yes - more evidence that Humans suck unfortunately

 

Well, some humans have a tendency to take some movies too seriously, and act like it's a personal affront if they don't like a particular element, such as a performance.

Some people were so filled with hatred for Hayden that they blamed him for stuff he had absolutely no control over, such as replacing the newly sacred elderly-Anakin image in ROTJ with him for the OT DVD release. There were T-shirts that featured the elderly Anakin with "**** You, Hayden" printed beneath the image. Now, I could kind of understand "**** You, George," though I think that reaction is extreme at any rate. But Hayden had nothing to do with that editing decision; people were relying on the supposed "universal hatred" for Hayden to "justify" their childish, petty actions.

I'm reminded of the extreme hatred that was spewed at Sofia Coppola for her performance in "Godfather III," and still is spewed, to some degree. I actually share the opinion that her acting was fairly lousy, but people went way too far, and seemed to be taking their general dissatisfaction with the movie out on her.

 

People are crazy, honestly. And they have way too much time on their hands.

 

Yeah and movies are nothing compared to how insane people get about sports..... Pretty sure soccer players have been murdered before

 

He did GREAT with the (mostly) awful dialogue and poor indications Lucas gave him

 

This is pretty much my take. I actually think some of his non-verbal acting is pretty good (esp in ROTS). I really like how he's pacing back and forth prior to the final fight with Obi-Wan; you can really see the rage boiling inside him

 

Hayden is a fine actor and he was great as Anakin Skywalker.I wish him all the best.

 

Viggo Mortensen and quite a few others step away of their own volition (from blockbuster roles)

 

A lot of entertainment media "fans" seem to lack any sense of perspective. They seem to lack anything to get hot and bothered about beyond entertainment media, which surprises the billions who care about things beyond some bloody works of fiction.

So they're still upset at Sofia Coppola for a dud acting performance from before she realised her vocation was behind the camera? That reminds me of some of the frankly stupid reactions I saw from superhero movie fans to Ben Affleck being cast as Batman. Agree or disagree with the casting decision, we must forget that Affleck is now quite highly regarded as an actor and filmmaker; comic book dude will always hold Daredevil against him.

Yeah, it seems like there are a load of Kylo Rens out there, lacking in perspective, aggressively lashing out at anyone who they think slighted them in some trivial manner.

 

Good for him, I think it's a shame some people like to target his acting ability especially when he did such a great job in RotS

 

The only dialogue I would classify as "awful" is the romantic dialogue, and I fail to see how Lucas gave him "poor indications." In fact, he gave him very specific indications (like to utter the romantic dialogue with sincerity, despite it being one eye-roller after another), though he was, as Hayden himself said, quite willing to listen to actor input.

IMO, Hayden is about on the same level as Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and (sharp intake of breath!) Natalie Portman in terms of acting talent. It's just that Natalie Portman is held up as some brilliant actress when she's nowhere near it and never has been. She's sometimes decent, sometimes good, and sometimes meh or bad; it's just that critics absolutely refuse to acknowledge it and keep making excuses for her (and don't throw her Oscar at me; I have never thought that winning an Oscar proves an actor is brilliant). Hamill and Fisher's acting has been heavily dusted with nostalgia, or else assimilated into people's overall perceptions of the OT.

 

I actually agree with you on Portman... I never understood why people thought she was so great.

I will always give Hamill props for:

- Making the Yoda scene totally work in TESB

- Pretty much carrying ROTJ in a lot of spots

 

THANK YOU. I'm glad that although we disagree on many points, we also have a couple in common, especially that one.

We have that in common too. IMO Hamill was the only one who bothered to turn in a decent performance in ROTJ.

Also, Hamill's strength is more in comedy than drama. I know some people would balk at classifying SW as drama, but I think you know what I mean. As a comedic actor, he is quite funny, and has terrific comic timing (which is rarer than people think).

And pardon the digression, but I've long thought that Brad Pitt is a comedic actor in the body of a romantic lead. As a dramatic actor, he's decent, but he really comes alive in comedic roles. (See: "Inglourious Basterds" and "12 Monkeys.") It's just that when he started out, no one in Hollywood, after getting a look at him, was going to consign him to comedic roles, which are considered lesser than dramatic ones.

 

I think the biggest issue with his acting is his voice, it's very monotone and bland. I would know I have the exact same voice unfortunately and there's not much you can do about your natural voice tone. I personally didn't have as much of a problem with his acting as I did with the material given to him

 

I can say I'm proud to see him keep his head on straight and I'm glad he seems to be happy and not blaming Star Wars. He seems to be very grateful of the role. It's quite surprising due to the amount of hatred against him. I mean, look at Jake Lloyd. (Who I thought was a fine child actor)

 

Would you mind going into more detail? I'm interested to hear more. I always got the impression they all enjoyed the experience, and loved George.

 

SuperPersch I second that! I curious about the detail. That would be kind of sad for George Lucas it that is true..

 

Yes. I felt the same. His voice bugged me. I guess he's not that talented at changing it but some actors take on different voices all the time. It can certainly make or break a character. He didn't have the voice or the presence to convince me he could ever become Vader.

 

he said at the time he was using that tone in certain scene's to imitate Vader's style

 

I LOVED his monotone voice. This is one of those criticisms of the PT that I just dont get.

 

Definitely one of the more bizarre films featuring mainstream actors I have ever seen. My god, wasn't Nicholas Cage a competent actor at one point? Hayden was better than him in that.

 

I LOVED his monotone voice. This is one of those criticisms of the PT that I just dont get.
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you don't get why people would find a monotone voice annoying?

well...each to their own I guess

 

Would have made a good superman - no??