# I've concluded Hayden Christensen isn't a bad actor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405 "2009-12-24T01:54:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/21 "2009-12-24T07:23:17Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > Apart from ESB the quality of the acting and dialogue in Star Wars has always been bad. Which, of course, was the movie that: - Had an excellent director in Irvin Kerschner - Had excellent writers creating the screenplay, in Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/22 "2009-12-24T07:51:14Z")
I remain unconvinced. One thing for certain is that he can’t pick scripts for shit, and he’s consistently terrible in the bad projects he picks. _Awake_ was terrible, and he was terrible in it. _Jumper_ was a mess, and he played down to the badness quite well. _Virgin Territory_ was an unwatchable trainwreck, and as cruel as this is to say, he may have been worse in it than Mischa Barton. And of course his work in the Star Wars prequels is legendarily bad. He was very good in _Shattered Glass_, yes, but I’m comfortable dismissing that with the same logic everyone else gets a pass for the Star Wars prequels: direction. I think that director was just particularly good at getting a good performance out of him. Every other director ends up with a pile of shit. I haven’t seen _Life As A House_, and I don’t remember his part in _Factory Girl_. I didn’t love _Factory Girl_ but I don’t remember thinking it was particularly bad, so I’ll give Hayden the benefit of the doubt. But one or two more stinkers and I’ll be forced to conclude that he just sucks. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/23 "2009-12-24T08:21:00Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I remain unconvinced. One thing for certain is that he can’t pick scripts for shit, and he’s consistently terrible in the bad projects he picks. _Awake_ was terrible, and he was terrible in it. _Jumper_ was a mess, and he played down to the badness quite well. _Virgin Territory_ was an unwatchable trainwreck, and as cruel as this is to say, he may have been worse in it than Mischa Barton. And of course his work in the Star Wars prequels is legendarily bad. > > He was very good in _Shattered Glass_, yes, but I’m comfortable dismissing that with the same logic everyone else gets a pass for the Star Wars prequels: direction. I think that director was just particularly good at getting a good performance out of him. Every other director ends up with a pile of shit. Gotta agree. His snivelling, unctious embodiment of Glass was fantastic, but I’m inclined to believe he got a lot of coaching and direction there, because everything else I’ve seen him in as been disastrous (_Jumper_ a travesty, _Awake_ an embarrassment, and _House_ incredibly overrated). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/24 "2009-12-24T18:33:02Z")
> [@](#): > > But he also didn’t trust other Directors to keep his movies on the very specific track he wanted them to follow, so was reluctant to give up control. What’s he worried about? Somebody else taking his ideas and not screwing them up on screen the way he would? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/25 "2009-12-24T19:16:49Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > George Lucas has repeatedly admitted, in interviews and to other Directors, that he can’t direct actors, and he can’t write dialogue (he doesn’t even like writing scripts). > > But he also didn’t trust other Directors to keep his movies on the very specific track he wanted them to follow, so was reluctant to give up control. I don’t think it has anything to do with trust. After all, he did trust other directors to helm _Empire_ & _Jedi_. I think once he did Ep.1, he was commited. The mixed to neg reviews were vocal enough, he couldn’t risk giving the next installments to someone else and having people praise them to high heaven. That would put, in sharp relief, how injurious he is to his own franchise. So in for a penny, in for a pound–he would have to direct all of them so that, for better or worse, he would get any credit as well as any blame. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/26 "2009-12-24T20:07:39Z")
Life as a House is among my favorite movies Christensen’s performance was excellent then he followed that with Shattered Glass which he was once again excellent in. I’ll give him some passes for bad acting in the star wars movies after those two. Since his names been brought up here I checked out his IMDB profile looks like I have to watch Awake, Virgin Territory, and Jumper. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/27 "2009-12-24T21:03:50Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > Since his names been brought up here I checked out his IMDB profile looks like I have to watch Awake, Virgin Territory, and **Jumper**. Trust me - you really don’t need to watch that one. I remember reading an article on Phantom around the time it came out and there was a part in it about how, due to the technology, there was a vast amount of control over the post production, even down to the most minute level of detail (like changing where an extra is looking in one particular frame). There was some line like “this is the first film that has been made with the ability to completely match the director’s vision” - I think this is telling and clearly such a thing is more important to Lucas than what is being shown actually being something people like. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/28 "2009-12-25T02:22:39Z")
I gotta agree with the OP. He wasn’t any worse than any of the others. Listening to his monotone delivery, his lack of emotion, and then watching IV, V, and VI and hearing James Earl Jones, they weren’t polar opposites. There was some commonality and I think Hayden’s Anakin was more deliberately like that than accidentally like that. Not that JEJ was bad, but I think he was being robotic sometimes and that’s ok because, well, Vader was more machine than human. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2009, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405/29 "2009-12-25T06:50:07Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > I don’t think it has anything to do with trust. After all, he did trust other directors to helm _Empire_ & _Jedi_. I do remember reading an interview with Lucas (conducted during the production of the prequels, IIRC) in which he stated that he felt that bringing in Kerschner and Marquand, in retrospect, was a mistake – not that he felt that they did a poor job, but that he realized that he really wanted 100% control over the movies, and the only way he could have it was to direct them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-concluded-hayden-christensen-isnt-a-bad-actor/522405.md?page=1)