The Force was not with Ryan Phillippe when he auditioned for Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, but he has since made peace with losing out on the role.
Phillippe famously came close to landing the role in the prequels, but at 29 was considered too old to star opposite Natalie Portman, who is seven years his junior. “Being a kid born in the ’70s, I was like, ‘What a dream that would’ve been,'” Phillippe, now 50, said on the latest episode of Variety’s Just for Variety podcast.
“But I think things happen for a reason and it’s easy to make peace with that,” Phillippe continued. “Part of what we have to develop as actors is that thick skin that comes along with rejection or maybe things not going the way you wanted in a particular project or potential job.”
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Ryan Phillippe at the Los Angeles screening of ‘Miranda’s Victim’ in October 2023
“There’s an element of being able to let go and release and not spend too much time thinking about those things,” the actor said.
Hayden Christensen ultimately landed the role of the legendary Jedi Knight and husband of Portman’s Padmé Amidala, later known as Darth Vader following his turn to the dark side. Other notable contenders who vied for the role were Leonardo DiCaprio, James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, and the late Paul Walker.
Christensen recently revealed last year that he expected to lose out on the gig after he learned that DiCaprio was also in the mix. “That just confirmed my thought that the role would go to another actor,” the actor told Empire magazine. “Through the entire auditioning process I had told myself, from day one, that I wasn’t going to get the part. It just wasn’t a possibility.”
Lucasfilm
Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in ‘Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones’
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“I think that probably helped me a lot, because it just freed me up in a lot of ways,” Christensen added of that self-doubt. “And so it really came as a surprise to me when I got the part.”
Phillippe might not have ventured to a galaxy far, far away, but has nevertheless carved out a stellar career path with roles in Cruel Intentions and I Know What You Did Last Summer, the latter of which is getting the revival treatment. Don’t expect to see him pop up, though, as his character notably died in the original 1997 horror. “I feel like I made the wrong move dying in all of these projects because then when they’re resurrected, I don’t get to be a part of them,” Phillippe quipped on the podcast.
“I used to think it was cool,” Phillippe added. “I’m like, ‘If I could take a character to their last moment.’ Now, I’m like, ‘What are you thinking? No, you want to live in case there’s more movies to be made.’ But it’s cool to see that those films have endured.”
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