Ready for "Star" turn Christensen enjoys last days of anonymity
Ruthe Stein, Chronicle Movie Editor
Toronto -- Almost certainly, no Toronto resident delights in getting around on public transportation as much as Hayden Christensen. "I relish the fact that I can still take the bus and the subway when I'm out with my friends," he says. "I'm enjoying this time right now, the calm before the storm."
His days of calm are numbered, specifically to 214. With the release next spring of "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," Christensen won't be able to go anywhere without attracting mobs. The reason: He has the star- making role of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan's trusted and good Jedi apprentice. Fans of the franchise know that by Episode III, which Christensen also is in, Anakin will go over to the dark side.
"I was looking for someone who was charismatic, boyish and likable, yet someone who had the ability to turn bad in the next film," "Star Wars" creator George Lucas said. "Hayden is young and charming, but at the same time, he's got an edge to him."
That edge isn't apparent in the 20-year-old seated this day in a hotel room, ready for his close-up in a crisp white shirt and sport coat. Christensen is so unfailingly polite and correct, he would be as readily accepted by West Point as he was by the West Coast.
"I don't have a dark side. I'm a good kid," he said, grinning.
Yet Lucas isn't the only director to spot Christensen's capacity to appear brooding. Irwin Winkler saw the same quality while casting the part of a hostile, drug-addicted teen from a broken home in "Life as a House."
"When Hayden came in, I had no idea he was involved in 'Star Wars,' " Winkler recalled. "He came into a cold audition with a lot of other actors. There was no reason to ask him about his background. I just put him on tape."
Reviewing the audition tape, Winkler immediately was reminded of a famous onscreen brooder: Robert De Niro. When Christensen read with Kevin Kline, who plays his father, "This strange thing happened," Winkler said. "Kevin's eyes passed over Hayden, and he looked at me as if to say, 'Wow, this guy is great. ' "
The first sight of Christensen in "Life" should shock "Star Wars" fans. The future Anakin has on blue eye shadow, earrings, a nose ring and a chin stud. Every morning, he would apply the jewelry -- all clipped or glued on, he pointed out with relief -- and makeup himself. "It was my ritual of getting into character."
The fact that he would look so different in the movie was one reason he agreed to do it. Although "Life as a House" comes out Friday, it was shot after "Star Wars," which is in an unusually long postproduction period because of all the special effects.
"I wanted a really drastic change from what I actually look like so the audience could still have a fresh impression of me as Anakin," he said. "George wanted to pick someone who was an unknown so you could really believe in him in the part."
Christensen isn't exactly an unknown. He's been acting since he was 13, after his parents, who own a communications company in Toronto, encouraged him to audition for his high school drama program because they thought it would be good for him to do something in the arts.
He got his start on a Canadian soap, "Family Passions," and followed with more TV work, including a supporting role in "Danielle Steel's No Greater Love" and, last year, in the Fox Family Channel drama "Higher Ground." He played the studious suitor in Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides."
But his new movies will give Christensen a visibility he has yet to experience. They also provided him with a chance to work with two very different directors. Winkler's dramas, such as "Guilty by Suspicion" and "At First Sight," spotlight acting. "Irwin was very involved in influencing the choices I made as an actor in his movie," Christensen says.
Lucas' concern is more with the technical aspect of filmmaking. Liam Neeson complained after making "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" that it was hard for him to act because he didn't know what his scenes would look like after Lucas digitally added the sets.
"Um, yeah, I understand what Liam's difficulties were," Christensen said. "But I think for myself, my performance is more believable because if all these extreme sets were constructed and I really was in these environments, I would have been so aware of what is around me that I wouldn't have seemed comfortable in my environment.
"It was very demanding on my imagination to be in a room with just a blue screen. You have to have a thorough understanding of what you want to accomplish. At the same time, it allows you to focus on the work more."
Lucas did provide some direction. "But he has got so much to focus on and so many other elements that he has to pay close attention to that it would just be selfish to demand too much of his attention. When he does give you direction, it is extremely specific and very helpful. He is the original imaginer -- he created all these characters and dreamed up the relationships. I was constantly trying to get him to define certain dynamics in my character. My character is a work in progress. I know he has to make a transformation over two films, but I don't know what is going to happen in the next film."
Lucas, the only one privy to that information, would tell his star, "In the next film, we are going to play that a little darker." "George was very specific in where he wanted to see glimpses of the dark side in Anakin."
Lucas became so fond of Christensen that he invited him to spend part of Christmas with the Lucas family in Marin County. Christensen came away impressed with how the famous filmmaker manages to lead such an ordinary life.
It's what the young actor wants for himself. Although he put off college to pursue his movie career, he hopes to enroll someday.
"My circle of friends has become much smaller because, you know, I question some people's intentions," Christensen said.
When he got cast in "Star Wars," "a lot of people from my past sort of came out of the woodwork. They want to be near me because they think I'm a star now, and it becomes very apparent what their intentions are. I'm mostly friends with the people I was friends with when I was really young. I don't have a girlfriend. It's the same thing, being suspicious about their intentions. I'm not a terribly social person anyway. I don't go out and expose myself to an environment where you would meet people."
Christensen is focused on his next career move. After "Star Wars," most of the scripts that came his way were "in the teen genre. Hopefully after 'Life as a House,' I'll get more diverse roles."
If Lucas is Christensen's role model for how to live, Harrison Ford is his role model for a post-"Star Wars" career. It's a better choice than Mark Hamill.