7 Interesting Facts About Hayden Christensen
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Hayden Christensen is best known for playing the adult Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but did you know anything else about him? Here’s 7 facts about Hayden Christensen.
7. Early Life
Hayden Christensen was born on April 19, 1981 in Vancouver, British Columbia. That’s right, he is from Canada. His mother was a speechwriter, and his father was a computer programmer. He spent his early childhood in the great white north and Long Island in New York.
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6. His Family
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It seems as though Hayden isn’t the only Christensen who caught the acting bug. In fact,all three of his siblings, Tove, Hejsa, and Kaylen, are also actors, with Tove also being a producer. His cousin is former ice hockey player Erik Christensen.
5. He Got His Start In TV
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His first major role was in the German Canadian co-production Family Passions. This soap opera lasted for one season, and featured several prominent Canadian actors. He then went onto to Family Channel’s Higher Ground, portraying a teen who was sexually molested by his stepmother, and then turned to drugs.
4: His Feature Length Debut
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His first film was 2001’s Life as a House, in which he played misunderstood teenager Sam Monroe, he earned a SAG award for this. He then followed this up with 2003’s Shattered Glass, produced by his brother, playing real life journalist Stephen Glass. Though his most praised role at the time, his most famous was right around the corner.
3: The Chosen One
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When it came time to cast an adult Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, we all know it went to Hayden. The casting director reviewed about 1,500 other candidates before George Lucas selected him. Though initially criticized for his performance, critics today seem to believe that he was held back by bad direction and dialogue.
2: Becoming Vader
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Those scenes of Darth Vader you see at the end of Revenge of the Sith? That was all Hayden Christensen. He actually got the costume department to make him the suit, enabling him to match David Prowse’s height with boot extensions. He returned to the role in Obi Wan Kenobi.
1: Post Star Wars
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With star wars out of the way for the rest of the 2000’s, Christensen continued to find work. His two biggest roles during this period were Awake, where he played a man who remains awake but paralyzed during heart surgery, and Jumper, about a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport; this reunited him with Samuel L. Jackson.
Well, there you have it. 7 interesting facts about Hayden Chrstensen, but we’re only scratching the surface. Can you think of any more facts about him?
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