PT I just don't think Hayden's a very good actor...

It goes without saying that Lucas's poor directing, and having to act against CGI backgrounds didn't help, but I watched the footage of Hayden at Celebration Orlando and he seems like a pretty shy guy. The type of person who gets nervous easily, and who finds it difficult to carry himself in front of an audience. Watch him, compared to most of the others on the stage, and you'll notice the difference in how he carries himself, compared to them.



Maybe that's why he quit acting, because he realized he didn't have the stage presence for it?

 

I mean, I also don't really like his performance, but what's the point of this thread?

 

I loved seeing him at Celebration and he may have been a little nervous. I mean I am sure he had no idea how he was going to be received. Wouldn't you be a little reserved if you had been on the receiving end of all the crap he's taken?

He didn't quit acting. He hasn't done huge films but he has done several since Star Wars. Most recently First Kill. He has another one, Numb at the Edge of the End coming out soon and working on Little Italy at the moment.

In interviews leading up to and during Star Wars he was more animated than he is currently. He has adopted more of a private lifestyle and isn't overly outgoing but that isn't necessarily something to slam him for. I think he's gotten enough of it to last a life time.

No need to start again.

 

Stage presence is an odd thing to talk about as Harrison Ford who people seem to like hardly is such stage tech nor are various other actors who are soundstage actors unlike say Mark Hamill who played Merrick in The Elephant Man on broadway.

It goes without saying that Lucas excellent direction and having to act against the tons of sets built for all the prequels helped.

I'd argue he gives the 2 best performances in all 8 Star Wars movies. Certainly It's hard to argue that he and Hamill's 5 performances are not all in the top 10 (or top 5) in the movies.

 

My personal favorite performances are Ewan Mcgregor's Obi-Wan, Ian McDiarmid's Palpatine, Mark Hamill's Luke, and Adam Driver's Kylo Ren.

Hayden isn't as bad as everyone says he is, and there are a few points in the Prequels where his expressions, delivery, and overall feeling are downright inspired, but there are a ton of awkward scenes and bad line readings that make it hard for me to rate him very high.

 

Thing is all those awkward scenes are supposed to be awkward so as an actor he's hitting it out of the park over and over again. I'm not sure what makes bad line readings in Star Wars other than personally not liking them or not liking the lines. Yet Star Wars is full of "bad lines" ie lines that wouldn't work outside the context of a Star Wars movie:




That line from HC is excellently done as it EM's.



The above again is all excellently done. The problem for this person seems to be the actual idea of the scenes and lines in the first place.

As for HC's acting in general all I can say is that I've seen him in several other things which he does a fine performance. There is no doubt there is a quality and presence that he has that might not be as appealing to some.

I suspect it's that quality which in part led to Lucas casting him and so there was a melding of the actor and part which resulted in a great performance.

Actually he reminds me of of another "Christian" in Christian Bale who also has a similar quality. Something where what they show and what's going on don't quite match.

This works well when playing characters who hide secrets. I don't think Mark Hamill would be a terrific Anakin or HC a terrific Luke.

 

Natalie Portman is in the same awkward scenes with the same awkward lines as Hayden and she gets a pass every time.

Hayden was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actor for ROTS as well as two Saturns for AOTC. In fact he's been nominated numerous times for several of his films starting all the way back with Life as A House.

 

I think she's just as bad in those scenes too. I think it's the writing mostly, and partially George's directing, not that they're bad actors.

 

Not for the movie itself though. I've personally talked to many people who target Lucas because they like all the actors in other roles they've done including HC but think that the performances in the PT are uniformly bad.

I know one guy who absolutely loves Liam Neeson but can't stand him in TPM because he thinks the performance is awful which is pretty shocking because that is one of the most praised roles in all of Star Wars.

As I and others have said before on one of the AOTC threads (where we really went deep into it) the way the writing and performances of AOTC were crafted was very precise on Lucas' part and he was very happy with the way it all turned out but he also knew that a lot of people simply wouldn't accept it because it was so way out there and so old-fashioned and super-"corny".

It's like the ROTS balcony scene which again I think is brilliantly done but I get why some people cringe at it. It's not a mistake by Lucas but a very deliberate intentional one.

 

If that is the case it just baffles my mind that so much of the blame everywhere is hurled at HC.

 

Agreed. I think he's a fine actor that did the best he could with what he had to work with.

 

This is going to end well...

Anyway I never had a problem with him

 

what's shy have to do with it? Robert Deniro barely says anything in interviews

 

Don't really think it needs a thread of its own. Feel free to discuss your like or dislike of Hayden's acting in the Anakin mega thread here, so

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