The Force wasn't strong in Hayden Christensen.
In fact, the Force isn't strong with many of the actors who have gone to the galaxy far far away. While getting the chance to star in the Star Wars franchise might make some actors feel like they got the Golden Ticket, it's more like a death sentence, really.
It's surprising to see most of the main characters from all nine films hated their time in the franchise, mainly because of what it did to their careers. Notice how you didn't see much of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and the rest of the legacy players post-Return of the Jedi? The same thing happened to the actors who came after them.
The only actors who were left unscathed, who managed to salvage their careers were Samuel L. Jackson, who loved his time as Mace Windu, Natalie Portman, who was railed for her performance yet saved her career, Ewan McGregor, who's reprising Obi-Wan, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson and of course Harrison Ford, who begged George Lucas to kill Han Solo off constantly throughout his time as the hero.
John Boyega didn't leave unscathed; he even thinks the franchise has affected his love life. Neither did Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binx), Ian McDiarmid, and the two actors who played young Anakin, Jake Lloyd and Christensen. What's with playing younger Anakin? It's like a cursed role.
But interestingly enough, Christensen didn't give up acting because Anakin ruined his career. In fact, Christensen probably would have come out unscathed as his two other co-stars Portman and McGregor did, if he wasn't his own worst enemy, that is. Maybe he was seduced by the Dark Side, and that's why his career went down the Sarlacc pit.
Star Wars Brought Him To The Global Stage
When Lucas first started casting for an older Anakin Skywalker, he had 1,500 actors to go through.
Everyone from Ryan Phillippe to Paul Walker, Colin Hanks, Heath Ledger, James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Eric Christian Olsen, Erik von Detten, Chris Klein, Jonathan Brandis, and Leonardo DiCaprio tried out for Anakin.
But for some reason, Lucas settled on the relatively unknown Christensen because he "needed an actor who has that presence of the Dark Side," and he apparently had it. We're not sure if that's a compliment or not. Lucas picking Christensen wasn't a total surprise; he's always loved choosing unknown actors for his films.
Christensen had so far earned credible roles in Sofia Coppola's indie film, The Virgin Suicides, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Sam in Life as a House in 2001. Anakin took his stardom to the next level.
But like everyone else who starred in the prequel trilogy, Christensen wasn't given much to work with. His lines were either cheesy or so blank that he couldn't do much to inspire any sort of emotion into them.
His performance wasn't completely his fault, but unfortunately, viewers blamed him for acting terribly. For his performances in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Christensen won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor.
But knowing that his role in the franchise was clearly getting mixed reviews didn't inspire the same reaction from him as his co-stars were having. While they were all dragged through the mud and complained about it, he praised his time as Anakin, and as Screen Rant wrote, "found a very annoying, almost Anakin Skywalker-esque, reason to be unhappy."
He Had Imposter Syndrome After Anakin
Instead of thinking that Anakin had ruined his career, Christensen thought it gave him too much fame that he couldn't live up to. Almost like he had imposter syndrome.
"I felt like I had this great thing in Star Wars that provided all these opportunities and gave me a career, but it all kind of felt a little too handed to me," Christensen told the L.A. Times. "I didn’t want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave."
Since he felt that he hadn't really earned his fame (even though his fame resulted from the franchise itself and his bad acting), he decided to take a step back from acting. So either way, the franchise debilitated his career, even if it was ultimately up to him whether he wanted to use his fame as a jumping-off point or a death sentence.
But even though there were big gaps in his career, he was still acting. Coming out of Revenge of the Sith, he took roles in Awake (2007) and Jumper (2008). He took two years off, then came back with Takers and Vanishing on 7th Street. Four years later, he returned with American Heist and 90 Minutes in Heaven.
So far, he's happy with his lower profile. "You can’t take years off and not have it affect your career," he said. "But I don’t know - in a weird, sort of destructive way, there was something appealing about that to me.
"There was something in the back of my head that was like, ‘If this time away is gonna be damaging to my career, then so be it. If I can come back afterwards and claw my way back in, then maybe I’ll feel like I earned it."
Now, ironically, he's set to return to the galaxy far far away and reunite with McGregor on the new Obi-Wan Disney+ series. It's interesting to hear how the actors from Star Wars felt about their time in the films and their experiences after. Sometimes an actor has the stones to revive their careers after a huge franchise; sometimes, they don't. But in Christensen's case, it was like he turned into his on-screen son, Luke, and fled to Ahch-To.
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