Hayden Christensen is gradually recovering before the fans for his roles in Episodes II and III of Star Wars, those in which the fate of the Galactic Republic was decided at the hands of the Sith Lord to end up transforming the universe into a Galactic Empire that we all know today. And his role, as Anakin Skywalker, was as decisive as it was noted for not being up to such an epic.
Return with Obi-Wan Kenobi
The fact is that this forgiveness that he is obtaining is being earned scene by scene thanks to Darth Vader, who is one of the obligatory protagonists of the series premiered by Disney + focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi. So taking advantage of the pull of fiction, and that they are calling you to visit the sets of countless television programs in prime timebetween laughter and laughter, he takes the opportunity to remember his time in the galactic saga.
One of those anecdotes has to do with the languages of starwars. As you know, only The Lord of the rings it can be compared to the creation of George Lucas when it comes to inventing a dialect or an entire language to give context and realism to a conversation between, say, two Jawas, or two Sand People. Now, have you ever wondered who is the linguist who is capable of creating a language from scratch and give it that typically galactic texture that does not remind us of any other that is spoken on Earth? Do you think it is difficult to do it?
Hayden and the Wattanese
The fact is that the actor who played Anakin in Episode II had to shoot a scene on Tatooine, where he had to meet Watto again a decade after leaving with Qui-Gon Jinn, thus ceasing to be a slave. The fact is that in the script it was simply implied that in that alleged dialogue, both protagonists had to speak in Wattanese, but there was no text or anything to memorize. So what could she do?
As the actor himself recalls, the day before he went to talk to George Lucas and asked him what «what should wattanese sound like?«. The director responded that “well, you know, as long as it doesn’t sound like English or any other language that might sound familiar. You can make it up,” so said and done.
The day of the shoot arrived, Anakin approaches Watto, their eyes meet and the conversation takes place as you can see in the video above. The result is a hodgepodge of disjointed sounds, that offer the sensation of improvisation and that of course give the hit perfectly. As if someone had consciously put each syllable there in a scientific way to build the Wattanese according to the ancient customs of the species.
But no, everything is simpler and less glamorous, because that dialogue was the result of what Hayden came up with in that instant. And then millions of fans will come wanting to make sense of such nonsense.
