Steve Pratt talks to Hayden Christensen about the respect he formed for journalists after making a film about a member of the profession who became famous for making up all his stories.

STAR Wars actor Hayden Christensen has greater respect for journalists after his current screen role. The 23-year-old Canadian, unknown until George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker, plays real life journalist Stephen Glass in Shattered Glass.

The film tells how the staff writer shocked Washington by fabricating many articles he wrote for the prestigious New Republic magazine in the mid-1990s.

For Christensen, the movie gives him a chance to show off his acting talents without battling against the special effects of the Star Wars saga. He was seen two years ago in Episode II - Attack Of The Clones as Anakin, Luke Skywalker's father and the future Darth Vader, and will star again in Episode III, which is due for release next year.

He became an actor by accident. His screen career started when his older sister went to meet a talent agent. "There was no one to babysit me so I went along for the ride," he recalls. The agent offered to represent him as well, even though he was only seven at the time.

Making Shattered Glass gave him an insight into what it's like to be a journalist. "If anything, my respect has grown for what they do," he says.

"I really started to become more and more aware of how difficult it is to tell a story, report on something without instilling your own bias. I know that, obviously, our story is an exaggerated version of that, but that's something that I've developed, a more acute awareness of."

He never got to meet the real Glass, or even speak to him, before making the film, which is based on a 1998 article in Vanity Fair magazine. He had to rely on photos and people who'd worked with him.

"You can get a lot by looking in someone's face. His walk and his speech mannerism, a lot of it I extrapolated from people saying he was very feminine and lacked self-confidence," explains Christensen.

"Obviously it would have been an easier film to make had we had his involvement, but he wasn't too keen on being part of it. That was actually quite freeing from my perspective because my Stephen Glass never had to be an impersonation.

"I definitely afforded myself some creative liberties because he wasn't a public figure. People had heard of him, but he wasn't really famous."

The actor, who's very protective of his private life, has become accustomed to dealing with the press, notably paparazzi eager to photograph him. "I'm quick, I can run really fast," he says. "I haven't had any people camping out on my lawn or anything like that. I get a real kick when little kids come up to me and can't really separate me as Anakin and me as an actor, and then I get to sort of physicalise their dreamland for them, which is really kind of special."

He tries to lead as normal a life as possible. After living in Los Angeles for a while with his brother, with whom he's partnered in a film production company, Christensen has returned to the family home in Toronto to live.

Moving out isn't an issue. "I don't spend a lot of time at home. I don't spend a lot of time in any one place. But when I have the opportunity, I want to go home and see my family and friends. All my friends still live in the same area for the most part," he explains. He's amused by some of the stories written about him - like he's dating Christina Aguilera ("we've never met") and saw Britney Spears while he was in London doing a play.

"Most recently, I apparently got evicted from my house in Los Angeles. I also heard that I burned my hand really badly in a light sabre fight," he adds.

A talented tennis player as a teenager, he considered turning pro. Now he still plays tennis to escape the pressures of acting. Sport is his main form of relaxation. "When I'm back home in Toronto, we'll organise some ice hockey games if it's winter or street hockey in the summer," he says.

"I did this thing called the Eco-Challenge after I finished Shattered Glass, which is an adventure race going through the most extreme countries in the world.

"I did that with my brother and sister. It was crazy."

* Shattered Glass (12A) opens in cinemas tomorrow.

Published: 13/05/2004