PT Ryan Gosling as Anakin

I don't if this belongs here or in the Saga thread so i will post it here

In ur guys opinion, if Ryan Gosling played Anakin instead of Hayden, would he be a good Anakin or a bad Anakin?

 

Well, there's certainly similarities to Christensen:

Both Canadian
Born with a year of each other
Both 6 feet 1 inch tall
Both blue-eyed and light-haired
Both Golden-Globe nominated
Both active since 1993 (according to Wikipedia)

He might very well have been a good Anakin, but I think I prefer Christensen. Although Gosling's done some good work, I think Christensen captured what Lucas was going for -- namely having that dark streak within him. Anakin in Episode II needed an actor that could portray mentally-unhinged rage during Shmi's death and Christensen pulls that off very well. I don't know that Gosling would have been as effective. He's always had more of an innocent, homey "feel" to him rather than Christensen.

Either way, we got what we got. Personally, I'm more interested in discussing Christensen's performance rather than thinking of hypotheticals. I honestly think that Christensen is mis-blamed for how Anakin turned out (for example, people wanting to see a greater friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan), but I highly doubt that this was due to Christensen's (perceived) failings as an actor. He had a great working relationship with Ewan McGregor. And he was one Ian McDiarmid's favorite co-workers. That counts for a lot, in my estimation.

 

Don't get me wrong, Hayden is a perfect Anakin, but basically i was suggesting if it would work with Gosling with him being a good actor

PiettsHat - Another similarity between them is that both of them starred in an episode of Goosebumps and Are you Afraid of the Dark

 

Oh, I get that. It's fine. It's just that these types of threads are always tough because I think a lot about Anakin's character was out of the actor's hands. I've only really seen Gosling in two movies -- Remember the Titans and The Notebook. He honestly didn't make that big of an impression on me in Titans so I won't comment there. His performance in The Notebook was good (although my favorite parts of the film involved observing the interactions between the elderly couple). It's difficult to say how this would translate into a role for Anakin though -- Nicholas Sparks' novels are rather, ah, manipulative (to say the least) and a lot of the dynamic between the couple in that film was sexually charged which I don't think is necessarily what Lucas was going for in Attack of the Clones.

I think where Gosling may have stumbled with Anakin is pulling off what I perceive to be the character's intense isolation and awkwardness that makes him vulnerable to manipulation. Christensen can pull off those introverted aspects of Anakin very well (as he does seem to have some introverted characteristics) but Gosling strikes me as highly extroverted and I don't know if he could have conveyed Anakin's situation properly because of that. Granted I haven't seen Gosling in that many films, so perhaps I'm being presumptuous.

 

I think Hayden would have been better than Ryan, but you know who could have been a pretty good Anakin, Tom Hiddleston.

 

Ryan Gosling is definitely the better actor, but Hayden just seems too perfect, i will give the casting department credit because all of their casting was spot on for the prequels. I kind of forget some of the hammy acting because it's star wars and in that universe it's kind of more believable as just being shakespearian so they would talk a lot different to what we do anyway.

 

This should be the automatic, standard response for any thread about X having been chosen instead of Christensen.

 

In fairness, the OP wasn't asking if Ryan Gosling would have been better than Hayden Christensen; the question was what kind of Anakin he would have been. These types of thread may become tiring to some, but there's nothing wrong with speculative threads (IMHO) rather than X vx. X threads.

Just as books may paint a slightly different character than found in (a/the) movie, different actors would affect the portrayal as well, regardless of directorial and editing choices.

 

True. So in that case, what kind of Mace Windu would Woody Allen have been?

 

A far far different Mace - and that duel with SIds would have been - something else to see.

 

I think Woody's neuroses would have driven Palpatine so crazy he would have jumped out the window.

"You win Woodyyyyyyyy!" as he falls.

Imagine him as Anakin after Mace falls to his death:

I shouldn't have done that. I can't believe I did that. No, really why did I do that? I didn't have to do that. I can't believe I did that.

 

I think Chuck Norris could have made a good Anakin, lol.

"You may have the high ground, but Anakin Skywalker always has the higher ground."

 

Ryan Gosling as Anakin? No, just no!
I can thing of other actors who could have done it, but NOT him!

 

Good grief, no.

But if we're on the subject of "what if" (not a comparison, or __ vs Hayden; i.e. not a "who's better") - what would Anakin have been like if Ewan had played him (age difference aside)?

GL would have directed him to play Anakin as Hayden did, no doubt, but even so, every actor does impart his own characterization.

Obviously, all of this is a guessing game and we'll never know.

 

I think Hayden imparted just enough vulnerability to play Anakin as George wanted him too.

I don't get that same sense from Ewan. He would rather pull his pants down and moon Palpatine than be seduced by his promises.

mod edit: spelling of Hayden

 

I think Will Smith could have done really good as Windu

 

If Will Smith had played Windu, Rowan Atkinson could have played Palpatine, lol.

 

To be honest, that would be funny and cool to see

 

Lol, I'd love to see that, Rowan Atkinson making his Mr. Bean noises and actions as Palpatine when fighting Windu, haha.

 

Totally

 

Saying that Ryan gosling, or anyone other than hayden christensen, would be a good actor to play anakin skywalker/darth vader without/before the robot suit, is like saying that Hugh Jackman is a bad actor playing Wolverine.

 

Ryan Gosling strikes me as exactly the same kind of particularly unemotive actor that Hayden has often been accused of in his roles. Look at Gosling in "Drive". He barely expresses any kind of emotion other than mild eye-contact. I kept hearing of some big, tough, neo-noir classic in the making when it first came out, with particular praise to his scenes with Carey Mulligan. All I saw was a couple of staring contests punctuated by 80's music and the occasional skull-bashing ultra violence. I'll take Hayden over that, thanks. He's a "real human being".

I also find there's something of the same performance double-standard at play with a movie like "Cosmopolis" and Robert Pattinson's robotic acting there, with excuses being made that it fits the post-modern tone that David Cronenberg tries to use in adapting Don DeLillo's book. I agree in that case, but I wonder why it is that the same allowances can't be made for "Star Wars".