Hayden Christensen Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions

Hayden Christensen joins WIRED to answer his most searched questions from Google. How did he land his role as Anakin Skywalker? What's his relationship with Ewan McGregor like? Can he play the piano? The actor answers all these questions and more!AHSOKA is now streaming on Disney+Director: Lisandro Perez-ReyDirector of Photography: AJ YoungEditor: Cory Stevens; Matthew ColbyTalent: Hayden ChristensenLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Paul GulyasProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Jenna Caldwell; Lauren MendozaCamera Operator: Josh AndersenSound Mixer: Kari BarberProduction Assistant: Liza Antonova; Brock SpitaelsPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Video Transcript

- Hello, I'm Hayden Christensen and this is my "Wired Autocomplete Interview."

[dramatic music] I ever Google myself?

When I was a bit younger, but it's been a very long time.

It was all surprising and shocking and I never did it again.

[dramatic music] All right, what do we have here?

"Did Hayden Christensen watch the 'Clone Wars?'"

I did.

I watched "The Clone Wars" when I was coming back to "Star Wars" to get ready for the Obi-Wan Kenobi show.

I was just sort of reimmersing myself in all things Star Wars.

And I thought they did a great job with these characters and brought in some new characters.

And really great storytelling.

"How did Hayden Christensen get the role of Anakin Skywalker?"

I auditioned for it.

Like, a lot of other people I went in and I met with the casting director first.

And then I went to the Skywalker Ranch and I got to meet with George Lucas, which was thrilling.

And then I got to go back to the Skywalker Ranch and I auditioned with Natalie Portman.

Maybe a few days later, I got one of the best phone calls of my life, saying that I got the part.

Just a lot of training to figure out the lightsaber stuff.

You know, they knew that I had some athletic inclinations.

I played a lot of hockey and tennis as a kid, so I thought maybe I'd be able to pick up a lightsaber and handle myself.

But it was a lot of time spent with Nick Gillard, the fight choreographer of the prequels.

And that was some of my favorite stuff was, you know, going to Jedi training camp and learning how to fight with a lightsaber.

"When did Hayden Christensen play Darth Vader?"

I played Darth Vader when we did "Revenge of the Sith," very briefly at the end of that film.

And then I got to play him again when we came back to do the Obi-Wan Kenobi show just recently.

It was a great thrill, you know.

I'd spent a lot of time playing Anakin, but to get to sort of spend some time as Darth Vader was a nice continuation of my journey with the character.

"Will Hayden Christensen play Anakin again?"

That would be a lot of fun.

I think that the answer to that question remains to be seen.

All right.

"Does Hayden Christensen go to conventions?"

I have started going to conventions.

I didn't for a while.

And then I did and I enjoyed it.

And I had fun and so now I go every now and then when I can.

"Does Hayden Christensen have social media?"

I do not have any social media.

Never say never.

Maybe one day.

"Did Hayden Christensen like playing Anakin Skywalker?"

Is this, yeah, Skywalker.

I did.

I loved playing Anakin Skywalker.

Just getting to play a Jedi Knight was so much fun.

Putting that costume on every day and having a lightsaber hang from your belt was a pretty cool thing.

And just to play the character that becomes Darth Vader.

He's got a lot of sort of, you know, inner conflict and lots of emotions.

He's always dealing with, you know, there's a lot going on underneath the surface.

Probably one of my favorite roles I've ever gotten to play.

I love the character, I love Star Wars, so yeah, I definitely did.

"Does Hayden Christensen play video games?"

I used to play a lot of video games.

Not so much anymore, ever since I became a dad.

I was big into Call of Duty, Halo, and then FIFA.

FIFA was kind of my go-to.

Manchester United was the team I usually played with.

"Does Hayden Christensen have any tattoos?"

No.

No, I don't have any tattoos.

Too indecisive to commit to a tattoo.

Alright.

"Is Hayden Christensen Mark Hamill's nephew?"

No, I'm not related to Mark Hamill, in any way.

I've met him a couple times.

Great guy.

But yeah, we are not related.

"Is Hayden Christensen a farmer?"

No, I'm not.

I'm not actually a farmer.

I do have a farm, or it was a working farm when I bought it, but I stopped farming the land.

So I'm not really a farmer, although I do own a tractor.

I don't know who really owns a tractor other than a farmer, so it's a gray area.

"Is Hayden Christensen a footballer?"

No, not a footballer.

I played when I was a little kid.

And then I played in a charity match, called Soccer Aid.

And I think if you go online you can see a video of probably the exact moment when I lost the soccer game for my team.

It was a close game, it was a tied game, and then it went to a penalty shootout.

And when I went up to do mine, it just didn't go very well.

And the coach actually, his one bit of advice to me was to keep it on the ground.

And then I went up to strike the ball.

And I was just like, I'm gonna give it everything I've got.

And I nailed the sucker, and it just went flying over the net, which is probably like a very Anakin thing to do when you think about it.

"Is Hayden Christensen CGI in 'Ahsoka?'"

No, I was actually there.

That was me.

I was digitally de-aged a little bit, but not a computer generated image.

"Is Hayden Christensen in 'Rise of Skywalker?'"

No, but my voice is very briefly if you listen closely.

"Is Hayden Christensen Danish?"

No, I'm part Swedish.

My last name is Danish.

I don't really know how that happened, but no, I'm a bit of part Swedish, part Italian, and then part like English, Irish, Scottish, something.

Sort of hard to track.

That's the end of that one.

All right.

"What was Hayden Christensen's first movie?"

My first movie was a John Carpenter film called "In The Mouth of Madness."

I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time.

And I was in one scene.

I played a paper boy and it was with Sam Neil.

And I was so excited 'cause it was just after "Jurassic Park" had came out.

And so I was really excited to get to be in a movie with him.

I think I was giving Sam Neil directions.

Both he and and John Carpenter were very kind people.

And I remember John Carpenter gave me a gift basket at the end of the day.

And a very nice hand handwritten card, which I think I still have somewhere.

"What is Hayden Christensen's favorite song?"

I don't know that I have a favorite song.

It's hard to pick just one.

When I was a kid, like, if you ask me when I was like nine or 10 years old, I would've said "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis.

It was one of the first songs I learned to play on the piano.

And I performed at a family member's wedding one time when I was quite young.

And then I also used to really love "Faith" by George Michael.

Anytime that came on the radio, when I was like driving the car with my mom, I used to rock out to that song.

"What school did Hayden Christensen go to?"

I went to Unionville High School in Ontario, Canada.

And it was a really good school.

It was a public school, but it had an arts program within the sort of mainstream high school.

And I went to the theater program there.

And we did like half a year studying Shakespeare, and I got to play Hamlet.

I really sort of connected with the role.

And that was definitely a moment for me where I thought like, this would be something I'd really like to continue with and maybe try to make a profession out of.

For sure, there's lots of comparisons you can make to Hamlet and Anakin.

They're both very sort of impulsive characters who tend to sort of act before they think.

I've certainly been accused of that myself too.

But yeah, there's lots of similarities there.

Maybe that helped me in my pursuit of playing Anakin.

"What languages does Hayden Christensen speak?"

Sadly, I really only speak English.

I wish I was multilingual.

But I can speak a little bit of French, not very well.

But in Canada it's, you know, a part of the sort of mandatory curriculum that you study French up until grade nine.

And then after grade nine I didn't continue with it.

I'd be able to fake my way through ordering at a French restaurant.

But as soon as I get into a conversation with someone, then they pretty quickly realize that it's not a language I should really be communicating in.

Bonjour, comment ca va?

All right, next up.

"How old was Hayden Christensen during 'Revenge of the Sith?'"

I think I was about 22 years old when I did "Revenge of the Sith" or when we started the filming on those.

Would go on for a couple of years, so I was probably 22, 23 when I did that.

"Where is Hayden Christensen from?"

I'm from Canada.

I was born in Vancouver, Canada.

And then my family moved to Toronto when I was like five years old.

And I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto.

"Are Hayden Christensen Ewan McGregor friends?"

Yeah.

Yeah, we are friends.

I love Ewan.

He's a great guy, great actor.

And it was so nice to get to come back and do the Obi-Wan show with him.

And now we see each other every now and then, and it's been really nice.

So yes, we are friends.

"Can Hayden Christensen play the piano?"

Yeah.

Yeah, I can play the piano.

I took a lot of piano lessons when I was a kid and I learned how to play sort of jazz and blues, which was my interest.

I can't read any, you know, sheet music or anything, but I can sit down and have some fun at the piano.

There's a lot of people don't know about me, some interesting things to be curious about.

Thank you Wired.

This was fun.

I hope you learned something.

Till next time.