Hayden Christensen and Diego Luna — Actors on Actors (Full Conversation) (original) (raw)

Hayden Christensen and Diego Luna have never met, but as Christensen puts it, they’ve occupied the “same galaxy” for years. Christensen rocketed from teenage obscurity in Canada when George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker for 2002’s “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” and 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith,” which chronicled the young Jedi’s transformation into the iconic villain Darth Vader. The Mexican-born Luna — who rose to prominence in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 coming-of-age masterpiece “Y tu mamá también” — joined “Star Wars” for 2016’s “Rogue One,” a prequel about the band of rebel spies, led by Luna’s Cassian Andor, that steal the plans for the Death Star. Both men thought their “Star Wars” journeys ended with those films — in Luna’s case, because his character dies — but it turns out they were merely frozen in carbonite. Christensen, 42, returned last year as both Anakin and Vader in the Disney+ limited series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” with his former co-star Ewan McGregor as the titular Jedi master 10 years after the events of “Revenge of the Sith.” Luna, 43, headlines Disney+’s “Andor,” a “Rogue One” prequel series from executive producer Tony Gilroy that radically reframes “Star Wars” storytelling from the perspective of everyday people struggling under the yoke of the Empire. Season 2 is filming in London; Luna, who is also an executive producer, flew into Los Angeles just for this conversation.

Greg Swales for Variety

DIEGO LUNA: I do have a show where I do this, but it’s in Spanish.

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN: My Spanish isn’t so good, so —

LUNA: Oh, shit. Then I’ll try with my broken English. I’m going to start with something that for me has been present since the day I started working on “Rogue One.” Suddenly, acting became as personal as reconnecting with my childhood. You were around 20?

CHRISTENSEN: When I first started with “Star Wars”? Yeah, I was 19.

LUNA: How did that feel back then? Were you still attached to this universe?

CHRISTENSEN: Yeah, big time. I loved “Star Wars,” and when the audition came around, it was exciting, but it felt just unattainable. I remember meeting George Lucas for the first time, and that was thrilling. And then auditioning with Natalie Portman. It was a very long process, but the entire time, I never really thought it would ever go my way, so I was just enjoying it. Then, when I got the phone call to play the part, it was a lifechanging thing. I’d really love to hear about how you got into “Rogue One.” You were already a very established actor.

LUNA: It was the first time such secrecy happened around anything I was going to be part of. I was asked by my agent to meet someone for something that couldn’t be said on the phone. I went into a restaurant that was completely empty. There was a guy sitting in the corner with a computer open, and this was Gareth Edwards, the director. I sat down with him, and it was just us for four hours.

CHRISTENSEN: So you had no concept that it was “Star Wars” at all?

Greg Swales for Variety

LUNA: My agent said, “This might be ‘Star Wars.’” I guess she didn’t want me to get excited about anything. Gareth explained to me the whole film, and he said at the end, “I would really like you to play this role.” I said to him, “But I don’t see myself here. I love these films, but how do I fit? No one has my accent. I’ve never thought this could be possible.” He basically said, “Since I saw ‘Y tu mamá también,’ I thought you could be great for a role like this. I want that kind of tone in the film. I want that feeling that it’s everyday life.” I never thought that a film like “Y tu mamá también” would get me the chance to be in the world of “Star Wars.”

CHRISTENSEN: That’s what I love about it. It’s a much darker and more grounded sort of take. I think it was very important for “Star Wars.” I love your performance. There’s so much subtlety to it and nuance to it, which you can’t always get in stories like these.

LUNA: Thank you. It was something that we reminded ourselves every day on “Rogue One.” And on “Andor,” we took even further the idea that you have to forget this is “Star Wars.” Tony Gilroy was very specific: It has to be simple. It has to be real. It was a constant reminder every day. If it started to feel imposed or from “a galaxy far, far away,” then we were doing the wrong thing.

CHRISTENSEN: I thought that my “Star Wars” days were behind me. I would imagine maybe you had a similar thing when you finished “Rogue One.” Did you know you were going to get to continue with it?

LUNA: It was a joke on set: “One day, we should tell how these people got here.” But we never took it seriously. We didn’t know if we were going to be the film no one went to see. We had to wait for the film to come out to understand that there was room for something like this.

When you decided to come back for the “Obi-Wan” series, what was behind that decision?

CHRISTENSEN: Just the nature of getting the invitation. “Star Wars” holds a very special place in my heart. I enjoyed getting to go back to being a fan again and watching these stories like everyone else. But there was a part of me that missed it too. So when I got the call, it was a very easy decision. And the fact that it was the “Obi-Wan” show with Ewan McGregor, who is a good friend of mine, and that I’d get to swing a lightsaber with him again, it was a thrilling invitation. And I was excited to get to do more with the character.

LUNA: I mean, it’s not just a character, man. It’s the character.

CHRISTENSEN: It’s a good character!

LUNA: If I have to think about the worst nightmares of my life, it really …

CHRISTENSEN: … involves Darth Vader? [Laughs]

LUNA: I remember waiting two, three months for my Darth Vader case when I was, like, 8, 9 years old. You had to go to the toy store and say, “I want this,” and order it. I used that until I was a teenager, until my friend said, “That’s not cool anymore. Can you just bring a backpack?”

CHRISTENSEN: Yeah, well, they’re good at the merchandising.

LUNA: For me, “Star Wars” brought freedom in many ways. But what did it bring to you?

Greg Swales for Variety

CHRISTENSEN: I mean, it would be easier to count the ways that it didn’t affect my life. It gave me an acting career. It gave me financial stability. After I finished “Star Wars,” there was still a desire for me to go back to smaller, more independent filmmaking and just try to cut my teeth as an actor. Because I was still learning a lot. I just tried to not think about navigating a career as much as I was just trying to do work that appealed to me and play characters that I thought would challenge me and help me grow as an actor. That was a great freedom. But what “Star Wars” has really given me is a connection to all the people that love these stories. I meet people now and it makes me feel a little bit old, but they’ll say to me, “Anakin was my hero when I was a kid, and now my kid loves Anakin.” It’s this generational thing that gets passed down — and that’s really special. How has “Star Wars” changed your life?

LUNA: I’ve spent my whole life trying to get people’s attention, to say, “Hey, look, we have a film here — you might like it!” Here, it’s the opposite; it’s not just that they’re expecting the film or the show to come out, but they also want to love it. They want to feel part of what you’re doing, that connection you don’t find anywhere else.

CHRISTENSEN: So after you finished “Rogue One,” did you get to keep any souvenirs? Usually everything goes into lockdown, and then they send it to a museum.

LUNA: I got the jacket. But I really worked for that. When I got to the preproduction process, I remember having seven fittings before I even got the chance to talk to Gareth. I was like, “I just got this job because this jacket fits me.”

CHRISTENSEN: It’s a good jacket.

LUNA: And then the jacket had to be worn in Jordan. I mean, it was impossible to wear it. I was sweating. But I’m sure you got a lot of the sweating with the outfit.

CHRISTENSEN: With the Darth Vader outfit? Yeah, it’s a hot costume.

LUNA: You have a daughter. Are you ever going to …

CHRISTENSEN: … have her see me in the Darth Vader outfit? Well, it hasn’t happened yet. She’s 8 now. I don’t know if I can wait much longer. She knows that I’m in “Star Wars” and that I played this character, but she’s never seen it. But it was really nice getting to do the “Obi-Wan” show and actually bring her to set. Not when I was in the Darth Vader outfit, but we did the flashback sequence and I got to play Anakin. She got to see me swing a lightsaber with Ewan. She was very concerned for my well-being. She was afraid that one of us was going to get hurt.

LUNA: How do you guys do that?

CHRISTENSEN: The lightsaber stuff? It’s a lot of training. You learn it kind of like a choreographed dance and where your feet are going to go.

LUNA: But do you actually have a stick that becomes a lightsaber?

CHRISTENSEN: Oh, yeah. Once we know the choreography, then we have a proper go at each other. Back when we were doing the prequels, the lightsabers were made of some type of metal alloy. And after each take, they would be all warped and bent.

LUNA: You’re going for it.

CHRISTENSEN: Yeah, we’re hitting pretty hard. And you missed every now and then, and you’d get a hit on the knuckles or something. That always left a mark. But getting to swing a lightsaber is pretty awesome. I got to keep a couple of them. One from the prequels, and then I got to keep two lightsabers from the “Obi-Wan” show — one Darth Vader and one Anakin, because they’re a little bit different.

LUNA: Wow, that’s cool! When we were shooting the first week or two of “Rogue One,” they gave us an amazing gift — the helmets of stormtroopers. I’m not going to say who did it, but an hour later, that was on all the social media. That was the last gift we got.

CHRISTENSEN: Man, I just wanted to say congrats on everything that you’ve done in “Star Wars,” and in your career in general. It’s just really nice to get to be here with you and chat about it.

LUNA: Thank you. You’re part of a universe that somehow got me to do what I do. The weight and the richness of those films shaped me as a kid and as a teenager — and then as a young adult when yours came out. And now that I am part of this, I understand how much that story meant for me.

CHRISTENSEN: That’s so kind, man. The feeling’s so mutual. I’m such a fan of the work that you’ve done and the work that you’re continuing to do. You’re still filming the second season of “Andor,” and just as a fan, I’m so excited for it and can’t wait to see what’s next.•

Set Design: Lucy Holt; Production: Alexey Galetskiy/AGPNYC