Shock reason Ryan Phillippe lost 'dream role' in Star Wars prequels
Ryan Phillippe is still wistful over losing his 'dream role' in the Star Wars prequels 25 years ago.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones might have been released in the year 2002, but the 50-year-old actor was 27 when he auditioned to play Anakin Skywalker just two years earlier.
The problem was that future Darth Vader was supposed to be 19, so director George Lucas wound up casting 19-year-old Hayden Christensen to play the love interest of 19-year-old Natalie Portman 's Padmé.
'Being a kid born in the seventies, I was like, "What a dream that would've been,"' Ryan (born Matthew) lamented on the Just for Variety podcast Monday.
'But I think things happen for a reason and it's easy to make peace with that. 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.
'So there's an element of being able to let go and release and not spend too much time thinking about those things.'
Phillippe wasn't alone as Hayden scored the plum part over Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Klein, Devon Sawa, Charlie Hunnam, Topher Grace, Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek, Colin Hanks, and Paul Walker.
In 2002, Portman recalled to TIME that Christensen 'gave a great reading. He could simultaneously be scary and really young.'
'I used to be the 25-year-old on set or the 22-year-old on set, and I am definitely not now,' the two-time SAG Award winner told Variety.
'It's just so humbling. Even if you take care of yourself, which a lot of people in our industry do, right? You exercise and all of this, it's still — you wake up with a soreness that's just randomly materialized out of nowhere that you can't trace back to anything you did.
'It's just there, and you got to deal with it. You know that the inevitable breakdown is something hard to reconcile, I think, for all of us.'
Ryan next portrays struggling mechanic Logan Maddox in John A. Norris' 10-episode coming-of-age drama Motorheads, which premieres May 20 on Amazon Prime Video.
The Pennsylvania-set series also features Nathalie Kelley, Michael Cimino, Melissa Collazo, and Nicolas Cantu.
'I felt like Yoda, they would all come to me with questions about what the old days were like,' Phillippe recalled.
'If they had questions about the industry or about upcoming decisions that they were making about project, I would be a sounding board. I have had a lot of experience.'
The Prey producer-star's 21-year-old nepo baby Deacon scored the part of his onscreen brother Christian in Motorheads flashbacks.
'Our kids grew up on sets,' Ryan explained.
'They grew up around the industry. But he's a musician first and foremost. He's at NYU at the music school, and I think he's just one of those who's taking the opportunities as they come.
'I don't think he wants or needs to define himself just yet. He never came to me and said, 'Dad, I want to be an actor.' I think it's something he's still figuring out and exploring.'
Phillippe is evidently not close to his 25-year-old daughter Ava, whom he also welcomed during his seven-year marriage to former Cruel Intentions leading lady Reese Witherspoon that ended in 2007.
'Ava is estranged from her dad by choice,' a source told DailyMail.com on April 13.
'She has no contact with him and rarely mentions him. Ryan hasn't been a present father figure in her life for years.'
Ryan is evidently not close to his 25-year-old daughter Ava (L, pictured Sunday), whom he also welcomed during his seven-year marriage to former Cruel Intentions leading lady Reese Witherspoon (R) that ended in 2007
The insider added: 'Things really soured in 2018 around the time he was accused of abuse by his ex. Her issue with Ryan is his treatment of women, which she finds appalling.'
In 2017, the Delaware-born blond's ex-flame Elsie Hewitt sued him for $1M over alleged abuse and his former fiancée Paulina Slagter accused him of harassment.
Ryan denied all of the allegations and Elsie's lawsuit was reportedly settled for an undisclosed amount in 2019 just days before they were set to go to trial.
Phillippe is also father to 13-year-old daughter Kailani 'Kai' Merizalde from his five-month fling with Pitch Perfect alum Alexis Knapp back in 2010.
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