the perfect number of cats is two stupid cats. preferably siblings. but they can't both be the same type of stupid. one needs to be stupid (dumb) and one needs to be stupid (annoying)
To play Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen trained 8 hours a day for 3 months. Six hours of sword fighting, two hours of weights and cardio, and six big meals a day to put on 24 pounds of muscle. Anakin's fighting style was built for one-on-one duels: heavy strikes, fast counter-attacks, and pure aggression.
All that prep showed up in the fights themselves. Ewan McGregor (who played Obi-Wan) said at a fan event last year that he and Hayden swung at each other so hard during their prequel duels, both lightsabers came back bent after every take. The props were metal pipes with no hand guards. A guy with a rolling cart drove between sound stages all day just to swap them out. McGregor also mentioned that during his earlier Darth Maul fight, he and Ray Park moved so fast that George Lucas had to slow the footage down on screen. He was worried people wouldn't believe it was real.
Then in 2023, Hayden showed up to the Disney+ show Ahsoka, twenty years after that original training. The muscle memory was still there. Dave Filoni, who created the show, watched him on set and said: "His lightsaber skills are just insane. He is the Chosen One. There is no doubt."
The prep was casual. Before his return in Obi-Wan Kenobi back in 2022, his first sparring partner was his 7-year-old daughter. They had a couple of lightsabers lying around the house. From there, he worked with Ewan McGregor's stunt double for a few weeks, wearing a cloth cape so he could feel how the Vader robes would swing. Then he flew out to set. By the time he reached Ahsoka, Filoni had mapped every fight scene out in advance, shot by shot. Hayden walked in already knowing the moves.
He's played Anakin across two movies and two Disney+ shows, over 21 years. The director told him to slow down in 2023 because of the work he did in 2003: eight hours a day for three months, metal blades bent in half, and a fighting style he never let go of. He picked it up to a level that doesn't fade.
@IsaacPunts One of the training staff is a semi-regular of mine. Theyre all athletes that got hurt/didnt fully make it to the MLB or some extent of that. Theyre genuinely good at the game, and they all really enjoy what they do because its low stress, high energy, and the sport they love.