Hayden Christensen on Jumper

12:20pm Wednesday 27th February 2008

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Q: What was it like working with director Doug Liman?

A: I think Doug has really made efforts to challenge himself and do something new and original. And he also encourages his actors to try different things as well.

Every aspect of making this film was really unique and felt innovative, from Doug's approach to telling the story to taking a genre that people are really familiar with and trying to reinvent it. We have the guys that created bullet time for The Matrix working on the visual effects on this movie and they were developing technology all the way through the film. So, every aspect felt like you were doing something new.

Q. What was the shortest time you spent in any of the exotic locations you visit?

A: Well, Doug's approach to filmmaking in general is pretty unique. He has a range of how he approaches the movie from big scale production to literally sort of showing up with the camera at my door and saying: "Let's film around New York for the day... Or Paris for the day." We were in Paris, I think, for five hours. I think he likes the down and dirty guerilla filmmaking.

Q. Was the number of locations part of the appeal of doing the role?

A: Yeah, I really love to travel, so when I read the script and saw all the locations we were going to cover I got excited. We spent a lot of time on planes, in transit - I wish I could teleport! But we were all over the place. We were using this new camera technology where they could literally have this crew of two or three people and we could just roam around the streets and shoot stuff. There were quite a few times where people would recognise me, or us, working on what was clearly a very small scale operation - some might say it looked like a student film or something. So I look forward to those people seeing the movie and all the action that comes with it.

Q. How easy has it been to overcome the Anakin Skywalker role in Star Wars? And do you feel that you have?

A: I don't know. I don't know if I have overcome it - that's for you guys to say. I mean, I think that's something that will follow me for the rest of my life. There will always be people outside of the hotels waiting with Star Wars pictures. I had a great experience with making those films and I'm very fond of everything that they brought. But I don't think it's anything that will ever leave me.

Q. Do you feel that appearing in those films has helped your career and opened more doors for you as an actor?

A: I don't think Doug cast me in this off of Star Wars. He was more interested in Shattered Glass and that's what he spoke to me about. There were certain aspects of my performance in that he was interested in. But the Star Wars did open a lot of doors for me and I'm extremely grateful to have been a part of a movie like that.

Q.The film looks physical - is that you up there a lot of the time? And did you sustain many injuries?

A: It was a physical part and I got knocked around quite a bit. But I don't mind it. I sort of enjoy the physicality of acting and I like action movies. I'm happy to do as much as possible - obviously, they won't let you do all of it because they won't let you kill yourself. But I tried to do as much as possible - although that doesn't mean I did it all smiles. I got a nice scar across my hand, I pulled my ear open and I knocked my head really badly so that my pupil got stuck in this extremely dilated position which was really disturbing because I couldn't see. We kept a list of injuries sustained and it got pretty long by the end of the movie.

Q. Did you ever feel like you were always on planes shooting this movie?

A: Laughs We did spend a lot of time on planes. Actually, Jamie Bell and I, when we were travelling from Toronto to Rome, we were on the same flight and after a couple of beers we decided it would be fun to make a kind of mockumentary of what it would be like for jumpers who couldn't jump and who had to just travel on a plane and deal with all the nuisances of regular transport. So, I got some footage of Jamie wreaking havoc on this airport and him poking fun at everybody on the plane. He's got a really good sense of humour laughs.

Q. Did you do any research on teleportation to prepare for the role?

A: I didn't do a lot of research on the actual science of teleportation to be honest. I didn't really feel that it would inform my performance. Although because I spent a lot of time thinking about it I got really interested in it. Doug and I actually got to go to MIT and sit on a panel with two professors who were experts in quantum teleportation, which is a form of teleportation that actually exists. In a very limited context they managed to teleport a proton particle of light over a distance of a couple of kilometres, which I think is pretty amazing. They spoke very intelligently about the actual science of it - I wish I could do the same - but it was very impressive and it got me excited.

Q. Do you know anything about a sequel and would you be open to it?

A: Don't know too much about it but I'd be very open to it. I'd love to do it actually. I think the story lends itself to continuing. I had a lot of fun on this movie and I think there's a lot of fun to be had with the concept of teleportation. Speaking with the scientists, they explained about all of the possibilities and I think that got Doug excited. He said at a press conference in Rome that he already had the next four stories planned out in his head so we'll see...

Q. Samuel L Jackson plays a little bit of a religious fanatic. Do you think that's Doug Liman's comment on the state of the world?

A: I don't think that he plays a religious fanatic. I think the religious comparisons are there to be made but I think what Doug was trying to explore was the ambiguity of that conflict. He wanted to present a scenario where both sides were ones that you could reason with. So I don't see him as a religious fanatic - he's a man on a mission. There are religious comparisons but I don't think they're blatant in the movie.

Doug's a really intelligent man and he makes intelligent movies that work on many levels. I think there's the popcorn value that will appeal to a younger audience but for people like yourself, perhaps, there are more intellectual ideas to explore that hopefully people will be aware of.

Jumper is on general release everywhere now.