the series of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Disney+ bring back Hayden Christensen as Darth Vadera figure that Ewan McGregor admits that it scared him during the filming.
While McGregor and Christensen worked closely together on the prequel trilogy of starwars, there Christensen played Anakin Skywalker. MacGregor’s Obi-Wan never came face to face with Vader. That changed on the set of the Disney+ series, and the experience left an impression on McGregor.
I never met Darth Vader. He had rehearsed the scene with Vader, but not with his helmet on or anything like that. When we got to do the scene, when they yelled ‘action’, he had to come up behind me. I turned around, and Darth fucking Vader was coming at me. It was like he was six years old again. He had never performed in front of Vader’s helmet. He had never looked her in the eye.
It scared the hell out of me. I’m not kidding. She gave me a jolt of absolute fear. I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s not acting. This is real. I’m really scared right now.’ And the same thing happened with the Stormtroopers. I’ve worked with Clone Troopers before, but a lot of them were CGI. I never worked with Stormtroopers, and, again, I was like seven years old again. Because when you’re actually up against a Stormtrooper, with a blaster, it’s like: ‘Fucking hell.’
It’s like real childhood memories of being scared. That’s how deep it is in us. I’ve been acting for 30 years and I’ve never really been scared when I act scared. But I had moments in this that were genuinely quite scary. It is fun.
Director Deborah Chow had a similar reaction upon seeing Vader for the first time.
There was a moment of silence, collectively, when he first arrived on set. Just having Vader standing in front of you is insane. It’s an incredible thing, but it’s very intense when you start doing it.