PT Hayden Christensen's Performance As Darth Vader (not Anakin)

Completely disagree, with all due respect. Consistent, sure, but like ya said, Anakin is a much more complex character who goes through much more changes within huge timespans compared to Luke (except The Last Jedi). This is basic subjectivity, but I don't really find Luke's arc to be as well set-up as Anakin's. I don't really buy 25 year old Mark Hamill's portrayal of a 19 year old. The voice comes off too pitched and forced for me. His acting is great in Empire and the Last Jedi, but I have always found his acting in ANH and ROTJ to be off.

I agree Hayden's inflections can be inconsistent but I always look at it as a part of ticking timebomb of a character, especially one who has the most amount of change within one SW movie. Mark's consistency is how Luke (and to be fair, most SW characters including Anakin) don't have their true development onscreen. (Luke goes from farmer, rebel to Jedi- Anakin goes from slave, Jedi, to Sith) However, I find Hayden's physical acting to be far more superior to Mark's. (Padme's Ruminations, his mother's death, etc.) There's just alot being shown in his eyes and mouth that I don't find as convincing as Mark.

 

Agreed. Hayden's facial expressions during Shmi's death give me goosebumps every time I watch it.

 

Regardless, I love ‘em both to death and would be thrilled to see them share a scene in the next one!

 

I love that photo!!

 

"Don't worry, Dad, someday you'll be able to grow facial hair like me."

 

I totally dig Hayden's performance as both Anakin and Vader (though i still think Benicio Del Toro of 2002/2005 fits that role the best), and this video made me appreciate him even beyond that.



Such an amazing acting. Such a menacing look, such an explosive moves, such a assertive in every step. He was the wild, untamed beast in RotS. I kinda laugh whenever someone bring Adam Driver and Kylo Ren in comparison to Hayden and Anakin. Grandson is not even close to his grandfather in all aspects.

 

The temple scene, the scene where he stands on Mustafar alone after the sep leadership massacre, and the first conversations with palpatine after his pledge of fealty showed I think Hayden did very well as Vader.

 

In short, Vader is not the suit and the amazing voice of James Earl Jones. Vader is a ball of anger, hate and desperation (yes the last one is important too) and we see that in Hayden's performance. For me there is not more intimidating Vader that during the march to the temple. We see it during the massacre of the separatists and even the mad nightmares that Vader presented to Padme as dreams of the future.Hayden just nailed although I like him most as Anakin. And indeed I like Anakin also for his performance. Anakin is James Dean kind of hero: weird, melancholic, dreamer with complex feelings and emotions. Just look at Hayden in AOTC. How happy he looks at the meadow of Naboo and how desperately in love he looks before the kiss on the veranda. His Macbethian monologue in the Lars garage is one of the peaks in SW ever. So yes, Hayden is perfect for the role for me. Even his naturally melancholic voice is opposition to the Vader modulated voice as we hear it in OT: Anakin is all that Vader is not and Hayden nailed it (in the end of ROTS too).

 

My avatar says it all.
I love Hayden as Darth Vader.

It is a shame we did not get more of this and that events concluded so quickly. Nonetheless, It is my favorite ever actor in a role in a movie (Revenge of the Sith). I think he played Anakin perfectly - and that made the conversion to Vader even more perfect. The make up and styling was also right on the money - not over done and yet we all knew he was now 'evil' - so unlike the overblown villains we are getting these days.

Character wise, Hayden portrayed Vader as a subtle, dangerous, terrible, despicable, cringe-worthy, pathetic, powerful, magnificent, gullible, evil, and really, completly mad dark lord it was a beautiful performance. So believable, so right based on his edgy performance as Anakin (recall the scene where he kills Dooku) - he was finally giving into his passions and he absolutely loved the unbridled freedom it gave him - and Hayden made that overwhelmingly evident.

Having read all of the commentary from George over the years, some quite contradictory, together with all the canon changes, I have pretty much decided to form my own cannon and for me, Hayden conveyed everything perfect about Vader as a new Sith Lord in ROTS...loved it!

 

I thought Hayden did a good job overall. He did what Lucas wanted him to do. I think also that part of the backlash is that Lucas vision of Anakin wasn’t exactly the same as what the fans were expecting. Lucas’ Anakin was a bit awkward, disturbed and deluded by his own power and Hayden plays him that way. Very well I think. Where as fans at the time were probably wanting someone more typically heroic and tragically fall to the dark side.

That’s not to say he didn’t have some flat moments because he did but I thought he was on point in Revenge of the Sith.

I think it’s a much harder role to play than people realize. Considering the actions Anakin takes in the films. It’s tricky to play someone empathetic, self righteous, and delusional. Yet at the same time expecting the audience to rationalize with your character and see the good in Anakin despite the horrible things he does. Let's not forget that these are wizards with lazer swords. Their sense of values and power would be completely warped to an average person. Not to mention some of the clunkiest dialogue in cinematic history.

I hope he gets a shot to comeback in the next film in some way. Let’s not forget that Star Wars isn’t known for the greatest acting in the world. Most the OT acting isn’t very good either but it gets nostalgia points. John Boyega was fairly terrible in the force awakens and Adam Driver was pretty meh in that one too. He came alive in TLJ though.

One thing that I didn't think that Hayden necessarily had to mimic was Vader's walk and physicality. From my perspective it would be understood that post Mustafar the injuries and the suit would change Anakin a lot physically so he didn't really have to channel that. But if that was his process it ended up serving him well I think.

 

What about Matt Lucas and his portrayal for Anakin?

 

Was that from TCW? I liked it and it seemed similar to ROTS Anakin from the first half. I prefer ROTS Anakin, Hayden seemed much more comfortable in the role by that time. I would have liked to see ROTS broken into 2 parts to have the character and his relationship with Obi Wan explored more.

 

He gets alot of flak but I think he was fine in both films. Sure they could have found a better actor (Christian Bale or something) but he was fed some pretty lame scripts unfortunately. He worked well with the material given to him

 

Generally the microseries tend to follow more the line of PT and the voice acting of Matt Lucas in Tartakovski's series is similar to what Hayden did. In TCW Anakin is presented as someone close to the let's say it what part of the fandom liked (therefore I don't like this Anakin) so Lanter does the job well as obviously is what he had to do although for me the melancholic vibe that is crucial for Anakin and so well represented by Hayden is missing

 

Cristian Bale even if he would agreed would be awful as Anakin. Not because of the age or his acting abilities but because of his presence. He is method actor, etc. but still he doesn't fit in the role of rebel without a cause. The script is more than good. The way of acting here is crucial: is a space opera for a fantasy world long ago far away. In this case the acting couldn't be modern. It is not even by Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson's part.

 

I think I watched the Tartakovski series once but don't remember if I made it all the way through so I don't know about Matt Lucas. I didn't care for the animation style.

But the thread is about Hayden as Vader and not everyone else as Anakin in the other medias.

I agree with @Tonyg regarding Bale. I don't think I would have gotten as much from Bale in the role emotionally that I did from Hayden.

 

I remember after TFA came out there were people and articles claiming Kylo is what Anakin should have been. now i have always argued that no one would have wanted to think Darth Vader was ever like Kylo Ren... but at the time thats what people were saying.

That has since faded big time and now Kylo gets ripped on a fair bit for being abit of man child.

 

Heath Ledger was discussed. I think he would have done a great job.

 

I remember seeing those and disagreeing. They still pop up from time to time when using certain search phrases.

 

Those claims were weird because Kylo Ren is basically just Hayden's Anakin except without the redeeming characteristics and context.

 

Also, we are never given any reasons what Kylo is so angry about. At least with Anakin we have a solid background story, he grew up a slave, was taken away from his mother at an early age, watched her die after a month of torture, never really accepted and trusted by the Jedi... more than enough reasons to turn evil. But Kylo?? Nothing, zero...

 

That's easy. Han and Leia were bad parents. So bad that their only child turned into a mass-murdering Sith Lord who struck down his own father and then enslaved the entire galaxy.

Okay, now go back and try to enjoy the love story in the OT. Good luck!

 

Hayden did a podcast back in September and talks a bit about his role as Anakin. Very interesting details.

The interview starts at 29:15 for the whole thing but the SW talk begins at 34:40.

 

Thank you @Deliveranze for posting this interview. I hadn't heard it yet. I truly appreciate his willingness to speak about SW. He is always gracious about the subject and has never bad mouthed the films or fans as far as I know like some of the other former cast members.

 

No prob! Yeah, I was pretty surprised to find this as Hayden is very low key so it was nice.

Its quite incredible that out of the 6 main cast members from George's films, he's the only one who never has said anything negative about the films, experience, writing, etc. It makes it more ironic because he gets the blunt of the criticism out of the OT and PT cast. While I appreciate Ewan changing his mind on his experience with the PT, Hayden being the one to never really say anything that slights against the films, other than he wished that acting schools taught how to act with green screen, is what makes him one of the most respectable people that worked on the films. Truly an underrated gem in the SW community.