AGE? 19 WHY HIM? Can you think of a better It Boy-EW’s first-than the winner of the Anakin Skywalker/Instant Stardom Sweepstakes? This lucky buck beat out Ryan Phillippe, Chris Klein, and Colin Hanks (son of Tom Hanks, and Roswell costar) for the role every young actor hoped to score: the future Darth Vadar in the next two episodes of George Lucas’ Star Wars triliogy. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? Credit the Canadian’s aggressive reps, who got their client (whose only major gig to date was Fox Family Channel’s Higher Ground) an interview with Lucasfilm casting director Robin Gurland. Over the next few months, Christensen went from being one of the 350 actors interviewed by Gurland, to one of approximately 10 interviewed by Lucas, to a tiny few allowed to test with Phantom Menace costar Natalie Portman. For the crucial final meeting, he was given a few pages of script and one night to prepare. “Afterward, they gave me a couple of hats and a Star Wars mug,” he says. “I was happy.” He was even happier a few days later when they gave him the part. “I was stunned,” says Christensen, who Robbie Kass said from L.A. “He kept repeating, ‘I’m in the same category with Ben Kingsley.’ Just the fact that he was nominated with that group of actors, that’s what he was so taken with.” Christensen, who has gone to lengths to limit his public exposure since the frenzy of interest that followed his Star Wars casting, was keeping a typically low profile yesterday. After hearing the news at his Thornhill home, where he still lives with his parents and younger sister, he spent the day hanging out with friends, and was unreachable -he doesn’t have a cell phone. The actor’s only disappointment was that Kevin Kline, who played his father in Life As A House, was not among the Golden Globe nominees for Best Actor, said Kass. Christensen’s talent has also been recognized by The U.S. National Board of Review and Movie- Jine magazine, which gave him separate Breakthrough Performance awards earlier this month. Last year, Entertainment Weekly mag azine put him on their cover as the personification of “It,” that indefinable star quality. When he was in Toronto promoting Life As A House at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Christensen expressed mixed feelings about the Movieline kudos, because it was announced.
Source: Entertainment Weekly