Finding Anakin - auditions for Star Wars Episode I

hi my name is cameron finley i'm seven years old i'll be eight on august 30th hi my name is devin michael and i'm nine years old hi i'm michael and rhino and i'm eighteen and a half hi my name is jake lyon i'm seven years old hi my name is justin burfield and i'm nine george wrote it knowing that it would be an incredible task to find the right child actor he had every imaginable element built into this kid from mechanical ability to earnestness his look was important his intelligence and usually children's roles aren't that complex and in anakin you had to have it all we tested literally thousands of kids we went all over the world for three years doing tests shooting tapes we looked in england and ireland and scotland and in north america and canada and the states and it was a process of just going to every single location and contacting the agents contacting the schools and kind of throwing out this big net bringing in as many boys as i could i think i actually interviewed about 3 000 anakin's and from that 3 000 i narrowed it down to three boys scene one eight take one scene one a take two scene one a take one they had to be really good actors they had to be kind of wise beyond their years and they had to have a good charisma good personal quality about them that could carry this kind of a film we decided to to bring them all up to do a test screen at the ranch with george directing that's a huge thing for a little boy to think that he could be the next anakin skywalker i mean in their world that's mammoth this is natalie hi all right so anakin is a little boy who lives with his mother on tatooine you all know that i mean yeah and he works in this little shop that sells used spaceship parts there's very few children who can actually act because acting is experience and you know kids have limited experience you've never met each other so this is the first first time you've ever said anything to each other scene one take one and action i'm a pilot you know and someday i'm gonna fly away from this place you're a pilot all my life i'm a pilot you know and someday i'm gonna fly away from this place you're a pilot all my life i'm gonna play you know someday i'm gonna fly away from this place you're a pilot all my life you're just a little boy i won't always be i won't always be i won't always be great perfect we had leia and luke and then from that we had to draw who their parents could or would be and so we're kind of going backwards natalie had to look like carrie fisher and anakin had a look like mark hamill i was matching parents to children and i was matching an ensemble cast i think you have to be a bit of a um investigator and you have to enjoy the chase i'll start with me i'm rick i'm the producer are you a mcgregor i'm george i'm responsible for all this i'm jake and i'm playing anakin skywalker everyone came to the table equal and everyone had an equal shot at it it's just who's right for the role and that was the only qualifier that i had to work within one of the most important things in this particular character is that he is a wonderfully nice boy and then there's this very intuitive kind of gut feel you get about that's the one with jake i just got that feeling i'm a pilot you know and someday i'm gonna fly away from this place you

Channel: brisingrwings

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Keywords: Finding, Anakin, Audition (film), star, wars, anakin, skywalker, luke, leia, process, Darth Vader, Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, Jedi, Lightsaber, kid, boy, boys, tv, natalie, portman, rare, footage, george, lucas, Interview, ewan, mcgregor, obi-wan, kenobi, padme, amidala, episode, phantom, manace, child, actors, screen, test, michael, angarano, jake, lloyd, devin, michaels

Id: GZSnB7yGylc

Length: 4min 59sec (299 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 10 2011