By CLAIRE BICKLEY -- Toronto Sun
In a
galaxy far, far away, Jedi boot camp is gearing up for its latest
recruit.
Okay, Australia is not quite that distant. But the scope and size
of Star Wars: Episode II will be light years from what
Thornhill-raised actor Hayden Christensen has experienced before.
The 19-year-old heads back to L.A. today after a week of visiting
family and friends here.
Yesterday, Star Wars producer Rick McCallum warned that
Christensen's rest and relaxation will be over when he reports
Down Under in early June to play Anakin Skywalker in the second
film of George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy. After the expected 2002
release of Episode II, he'll again appear as the brave young Jedi
knight in Episode III, who eventually becomes corrupted by evil
and evolves into Darth Vader.
"He'll be flat out from the minute he gets here until
shooting," McCallum said in a posting on official Web site
www.starwars.com.
"As soon as he gets off the plane we'll be handing him over
to (stunt coordinator) Nick Gillard for Jedi training."
Christensen isn't likely to be daunted by the role's athletic
requirements. He told The Sun he expected to go to college on a
tennis scholarship until "I sort of got a bit sidetracked by
acting." He also played Triple-A hockey when he was younger,
plays competitive beach-paddle tennis with older brother Tove,
rollerblades, skateboards and goes mountain biking.
On his Vancouver-made TV drama, Higher Ground, which will
premiere in Canada this fall, he often was called on for sports
sequences.
Episode II will shoot in Australia for most of the summer with
additional filming in Tunisia and Italy.
McCallum said Christensen's casting has invigorated the
production team.
"Everyone's excited, because I showed them some of the
screen test. He's really an unknown. I think the casting sends
the signal that we're living by our word, and that we are
anxiously working to deliver something new with this film,"
he said.
In one of his first interviews, given only hours after Lucasfilm
confirmed his casting on May 12, Christensen described himself to
The Sun as being equal parts "disbelief, shock (and)
excitement.
"I've got good people to talk to and to keep me grounded.
I'll have my feet on the ground," he said.
Since then, he has been featured in Time magazine, on TV's Entertainment
Tonight, and this week
was scheduled to do a photo shoot for Canada's Flare magazine.
Avoid spotlight
Christensen's close friend and Higher Ground co-star A.J. Cook
predicted he'll avoid the spotlight in the long run.
"He's a man of few words. Definitely," said the
actress, who has a lead role in the current feature film The Virgin Suicides, in which Christensen also appears.
"I think he'll shy away from a lot of it ... I'm like, 'Oh
my goodness, you're going to be on David
Letterman and all that
kind of stuff.' I'm just like, 'Hayden, do you understand? This
is the calm before the storm.'
"And he's just like, he's scared, he's nervous. He's a very
private guy. I don't think he's going to be in, you know, every
single magazine. I think he'll hide away from it a lot."
