HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN HOW A KID FROM CANADA ENDED UP AS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC VILLAINS IN FILM HISTORY.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

Hayden Christensen doesn't look menacing.

So you have to wonder what George Lucas saw in the then-19-year-old that made him think, ``This man could become Darth Vader.''

Although he played youth hockey competitively in the Toronto area, Christensen was a scorer, not a fighter. So with his blond good looks and blue eyes, menacing is not the word that comes to mind. Still, there is something of the dark side about him.

Now the 24-year-old Canadian actor is being thrust into the spotlight as Anakin Skywalker with the release of ``Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,'' much more so than he was in 2002 in ``Episode II - Attack of the Clones.''

``Yeah, yeah, I get recognized, but it's not like huge hysteria fanfare,'' the polite and seemingly unaffected Christensen says. But that's likely to change with ``Sith,'' where he is the central character. By the end of the film, he is transformed into one of the most intimidating villains in all of cinema - but in person, Christensen looks thinner than in the movie.

``The first thing George impressed on me was that he wanted me to put on some size and bulk up. I went out to Australia (where much of the film was shot) a few months beforehand and was working out with a trainer twice a day with weights and eating all sorts of protein supplements and anything I could get my hands on and I put on about 25 pounds.''

The size started to dissipate ``as soon as I stopped working out, which was more or less as soon as we started filming. So even though you can't really tell cause we didn't shoot in sequential order, by the end of the film I had lost about 10 pounds.''

But bulk alone wasn't going to make Darth Vader. As Anakin, Christensen needs the audience to believe that he could become a coldblooded killer. He had already taken hits from ``Star Wars'' fans over his performance in ``Clones,'' where he was seen as petulant and whiny.

Lucas says Christensen got a bad rap. The director praised his performance and said the naysayers ``just didn't like the character.''

Lucas' wooden dialogue in ``Clones'' didn't help, particularly in the romantic scenes between Anakin and Padme (Natalie Portman).

``Petulance,'' says Christensen, ``was a necessary characteristic as far as we know of Anakin from 'Episode I,' where he had all the same qualities. And to make it believable that I'm just an older version of him in 'II,' I needed also to express those same sort of whiny qualities. It sets up the choices Anakin is making in 'Episode III,' and it makes you understand that you're not watching a heroic transformation but something that's rather pathetic and sad in a lot of ways.''

Ian McDiarmid, the British stage actor and director who plays Chancellor Palpatine and Anakin's seducer to the dark side, says he first met Christensen while working on a scene with him and Portman in ``Clones.''

``I thought immediately - 'I don't know, there's something about the eyes, I think' - that he was a fine young actor. So I was excited by the fact that what would happen in 'III' would be with him. ... I knew that if anything was going to work in terms of my performance as Palpatine, it would be due to the actor who is playing on the other side of the camera, and that's all about what happens with the eyes on every take. And with Hayden, it was always something new and something fresh.''

Christensen says he knew what he was getting himself into when he took the role of Anakin/Vader. ``When you enter into such a franchise with such popularity and play a character that's an iconic villain, you know you're setting yourself up for some serious criticisms. I was fine with that. ... It's never been a popularity contest for me. I just wanted to help George realize his vision for this role and help bring it to life.''

To help the transformation to Vader, a special suit was created to make Christensen several inches taller.

``The logistics of having to walk in the suit was very awkward. ... All day long, I was really nervous I was going to fall over and wreck the suit.''

But being the film's biggest bad guy also proved fun.

``There's something about acting behind a mask that's very freeing as an actor. And to have that mask be Darth Vader is very empowering. I almost got that sort of beastly sense when I was in it. But what was really cool was watching everybody else sort of look at me. People ... would step back and lower their heads.''

Christensen, who is currently working in Italy on a film version of the 14th-century literary classic ``The Decameron'' by Giovanni Boccaccio that also stars Mischa Barton and Tim Roth, did commercials as a kid. But growing up, he ``thought acting was a bit of a joke, to be honest.'' It wasn't until he studied it in high school and was inspired by a teacher that he decided to ``forgo the whole university thing'' and give acting a shot.

It didn't take Christensen long before he was a regular on the TV show ``Higher Ground'' and working in films, as Kevin Kline's drug-using, disaffected teenage son in ``Life as a House'' and in Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, ``The Virgin Suicides.''

But he's quick to remind you, ``I haven't been in a lot of films,'' although he's got four or five waiting. `` 'Star Wars' has had a massive impact'' on Christensen's life over the last five years, but he doesn't believe he'll be saddled with the Darth legacy.

``It remains to be seen. I have no control over it. I think the association will always be strongest, but, to be perfectly honest, I kind of think the whole type-casting thing is a little dated. ... Who knows?''

Now he's ready to move on. One thing he got to do between ``Star Wars'' movies was make his London West End stage debut in 2002 with ``This Is Our Youth.''

In 2003, he won plaudits in the film ``Shattered Glass,'' the true story of Stephen Glass, a rising magazine journalist who fell from grace when it was discovered that he had made up facts, quotes and even entire stories.

When reminded that, like Anakin, Glass had misused his talents, Christensen muses:

``There are definitely similarities as far as they're about people who let their ambitions get the better of them and opted for a bit of a shortcut. ... I guess I have - I don't know - a certain affection for those darker sensibilities.''

Maybe that's what Lucas saw.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) THE MAN WHO WOULD BE

DARTH VADER

Hayden Christensen takes on the role of one of the screen's greatest villians in `Revenge of the Sith'

(2) no caption (Hayden Christensen)

(3 -- 5) no caption (Characters from ``Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,'')

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist

Box:

THE HEART OF DARKNESS 

Source: starwars.com