Fatherly bring us a fascinating chat with Hayden Christensen as he returns to the role of Darth Vader after almost two decades away, discussing the reaction to the prequels in the modern era (“The only reason we’ve been able to come back and continue with these characters again is because of your generation.”), how fatherhood has changed him (“When I became a dad that changed everything in my life. It really reprioritized things for me. It’s still the focus of my world.”) and getting back into Anakin shape so he can fit into the Darth Vader suit, something he felt was essential to do.
“I think that process was very important for me,” he says. “I needed to become that character again, physically. I just consumed as many calories as possible. I put on 25 or 30 pounds to fill out that [Darth Vader] suit.”
This process took about nine months, but Christensen reveals he didn’t retain his jacked Darth Vader bod after filming was completed. “I try to avoid the dad bod thing,” he says with a chuckle. “And I was trying to maintain that Vader body after we finished. But, honestly, I pretty much just went back to my old diet. I kind of deflated after that.”
[lasso box=”1368023495″ ref=”amzn-star-wars-padawan” id=”169655″ link_id=”42656″]
