Natalie Portman Says 'Star Wars' Almost Killed Her Acting Career

[TremblingBluStar]

Well, given by what you said earlier, I'd say that a movie that makes double its budget is at least a moderate success. I'll grant you that it seems to have been a mediocre success at best at the US box office.

I'd agree, but you won't find a single article claiming Jumper was a huge success. You will, however, find many saying it was a major flop.

 

[Set Harth]

he at least makes a noticeable attempt to mimic Prowse's moves in RotS, following his turn to the Dark Side but when he's still human rather than a cyborg. I'm thinking of a move where he clenches his fists and throws his arms quickly to his sides, that he does at least twice in the chambers of the Chancellor.

I thought you meant that some of his saber technique on Mustafar seems to mirror Vader's style in the final phase of the Cloud City duel. He turns to the dark side in the Chancellor's office, but isn't in that location in any subsequent scene. So I'm not sure what move you're referring to.

 

[maneth]

I thought you meant that some of his saber technique on Mustafar seems to mirror Vader's style in the final phase of the Cloud City duel. He turns to the dark side in the Chancellor's office, but isn't in that location in any subsequent scene. So I'm not sure what move you're referring to.

I agree with you on his saber technique, come to think of it. It's been a while since I last saw RotS, but I seem to remember thinking, "hey, that's Darth Vader" when he got up after Palpatine had given him the name, long before the battle on Mustafar.

 

[Ithekro]

That might have been a reason Lucas hired him. He could do Vader.

 

[Reverend]

IIRC he had to lobby pretty hard to be the one to wear the suit at the end of RotS. I think the original plan was to just get another body double, or re-hire Prowse (I forget whether or not he was persona non grata at Lucasfilm by that point.)

On a related note, I was surprised that when Vader showed up on Rebels, I absolutely recognised his movements as Anakins' (from TCW.) I'm not sure how much of that is deliberate, how much is me reading too much into it or whether they'd always animated Anakin to be reminiscent of Prowes' original performance (probably a combination of all three.)

 

[Ithekro]

I imagine the animators did a bunch of studies on Hayden's movements while designing Anakin for the Clone Wars. His walk and way of movement would sell the idea that this is Anakin Skywalker. That they kept those movements for Darth Vader in Rebels would be inspired. More inspired would be if Hayden's performance actually did take movement queues from Prowse's work as Darth Vader from time to time, so that when the animators started working on it they were actually getting both actors movements right from the start.

I do recall the behind the scenes featurette for Revenge of the Sith that talked bout the process of recreating Darth Vader's helmet and its fitting to Hayden. At the very end, when you see Hayden in the suit (strapped down to the table), his head movements, intentional or not, were exactly Darth Vader. Like Prowse was in there, but we know it was Hayden.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Maybe that's why I thought the helmet in RoTS looked so...off. Its shape had changed subtly across the OT, but nowhere near as drastically as when it reappeared in the last movie. Maybe because Christiansen's head shape was that much different from Prowse's. Personally, I thought it looked the most "sinister" in ANH. Can't explain why, just the way it was shaped compared to other films. It flared out more or sat lower or something...

 

[Set Harth]

For one thing, the helmet built for ROTS was designed to be symmetrical, but the OT one actually wasn't. It's hard to put your finger on what's different without a side-by-side comparison.

 

[Iamnotspock]

For one thing, the helmet built for ROTS was designed to be symmetrical, but the OT one actually wasn't. It's hard to put your finger on what's different without a side-by-side comparison.

Yes, it's just like any human face; symmetrical doesn't look right. If you take a front portrait of someone and put a mirror down the middle, it looks weird. They took advantage of more accurate measuring techniques when making the ROTS mask, and the result just looked off.