AGE 19
WHY HIM? Can you think of a better It Boy- EW’s first-than the winner of the Anakin Skywalker/Instant Superstardom Sweepstakes? This lucky buck beat out Ryan Phillippe, Chris Klein, and Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks, and Roswell cotar) for the role every young actor hoped to score: the future Darth Vader in the next two episodes of George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Credit the Canadian’ aggressive reps, who got their client (whose only major gig to date has been the Fox Family Channel’s Higher Ground) an interview with Lucasfilm casting director Robin Gurland. Over the next few months, Christensen went from being one of 350 actors interviewed by Gurland, to one of approximately 10 interviewed by Lucas, to a tiny few allowed to test with costar Natalie Portman. For the crucial final meeting, he was given a few pages of script and one night to prepare. “Afterward, they gave me a couple of hats and a Star Wars mug,” he says. “I was happy.” He was even happier a few days later when they gave him the part. “I was stunned,” says Christensen, who like many of his generation came into Star Wars fandom via video.
BIGGEST INFLUENCES: “The Simpsons and Curious George. They showed me it was okay to be mischievous.”
UNLIKELY SOURCE OF INSPIRATION: The drug addicts near his old Vancouver apartment that he’d interrogate over breakfast-research for his dope-Smoking teen on HG.
FAVORITE STAR WARS CHARACTER: Yoda. “He’s just the coolest.”
WHO’S NOT IT? “People who rag on their parents.” Christensen clearly has a close relationship with his parents: Mom, Alie called during this photo shoot; Dad, David, a communication exec, supports his son’s acting. “Dad wanted me to go to university on a tennis scholarship. When I got the part, he sent me a card that said, ‘some things are bigger than a tennis scholarship to Harvard.”
WORST CAREER MOMENT “So far, so good.”
NEXT Fencing classes (a.k.a. lightsaber training), then maybe a road-trip flick that he and his older brother, Tove, are developing for their new production company.