|
GEORGE LUCAS:
“When I started telling everyone, ‘The first [film] is about a 10- year-old boy,’ everyone panicked and said that wasn’t going to work, people wanted to see Darth Vader going around killing people. I said, ‘Well, that isn’t the story, and I’m not going to do a sequel for the sake of doing a sequel.’ I really wanted to do a film that tells this story of where Darth Vader came from. I thought that enough people would see the first film and finance the second one. When we got to the second one people were even more horrified that I wasn’t going to have Darth Vader in there, and that it was going to be a love story. But we got through both of those films and this is the one that has 80 percent of the story in it.”
HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN:
“This is the story that I was waiting for, it was the time in Anakin’s life that I was waiting for. This is him at his most transitionary phase. It’s him becoming dark.”
LUCAS:
“When I finished Return of the Jedi I figured that was the end of it. I was going to raise my kids and then come back and direct, but it was going to be a little artsy movie. Then we did Jurassic Park, and we moved ILM forward, and so by the time my kids were old enough that I could go back to directing, it really came down to the fact that, technically, I could tell the back story if I wanted to. I thought it might be interesting to tell a story that changes the influence of the way the first three films are viewed, because it really is about Darth Vader. It’s not about Luke and Leia.’”
CHRSTENSEN on putting the Darth Vader costume on for the first time:
“Everyone from the crew and the production office came out to bear witness. What a day. I [felt] every emotion that you can imagine; there’s something about acting behind a mask that’s just very freeing as an actor, and to have that mask of Darth Vader is very empowering. I almost got this sort of beastly sense when I was in it. It was a day I’ll never forget.”
LUCAS:
“I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to take special effects to where it is now. By bringing back the special effects world, I brought back the ability to make all kinds of movies, not just Space movies, which really didn’t exist before the ‘70s.”
CHRISTENSEN on the final day of shooting:
“It was a very emotional day. The nostalgia in the air was tangible. It was 30 years of George’s life work leading up to that, and it was five of mine. You could see it in his eyes that there was a retrospective taking place. It was a privilege to be a part of it. I shed a tear and gave George a big hug.”
| 
THE CONCEPT:
