Who was the better actor - Hayden Christensen or Mark Hamill?

Title is referring to who gave a better performance in their Skywalker roles.

hamill seemed really stiff in the OT tbh. hayden was better imo

Mark overall, but Hayden was good in ROTS.

Mar

Rotj still one of the best acting performances in cinema

Hayden was great in AOTC for what he was meant to be: a whiny kid. 

The same thing happened with Padmé in Episode I, when she had this very stilted dialogue as the Queen. And also with Hayden in Episode II. He said, “I don’t want to be this whiny kid.” I said, “Well, you are. You gotta be a whiny teenager.”
Like father, like son.
He said, “I want to be Darth Vader.” I said, “You gotta be a petulant young Jedi. You’re not going to be the guy you thought you’d be when you signed your contract.” Hayden was grateful for this last movie, where he actually got to be Darth Vader.

In ROTS he did an amazing job at conveying Anakin's distress and inner turmoil throughout the film. He absolutely shone when he became Darth Vader and during the Mustafar scenes. His expressions were enough to give me chills, and he was absolutely amazing as the fallen hero persona.

Mark however was much better overall. His Luke was a much more solid character. You related to him, felt for him in his struggles and he didn't have the weakness of incredibly weak dialogue like Hayden "I don't like sand" Christensen did. He and Hayden are difficult to compare but if I had to break it down:


Conveying emotion with expressions alone: Hayden easily.

Pretending to be in pain: Eh, Hayden.

Range: By ROTS, probably Hayden, but Mark is very close.

Grief: Hayden for sure.

Anger: Mark, easily.

Expressing their character's inner turmoil: Hayden.


Overall performance: Mark was more solid, relatable and engaging. His range was more impressive than Hayden's (though Hayden proved he's definitely on par with Mark in overall acting) but Mark gets the edge for much more solid dialogue.


In my opinion, they're both around the same level in acting quality at the time of their roles in the films. Mark was lucky to have better directing, better dialogue and to not have the shadow of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) leaning over his character, allowing him to develop as his own character independent of anything else. By contrast, Hayden had terrible directing and dialogue (though it was infinitely better in ROTS than AOTC), as well as people constantly comparing his Anakin (who was meant to be whiny and immature by Lucas because George is a bit of a twat sometimes and can't imagine a 20-something year-old being mature and yet finding it difficult to control his possessiveness and emotions) to Darth Vader.


Overall, Mark is better but only because he had better directing and scripts. Hayden is massively underrated as an actor, and hopefully if he comes back to act again that will change.

Mark tbh although hayden did a pretty marvelous job

BoD wrote:Hayden was great in AOTC for what he was meant to be: a whiny kid. 

The same thing happened with Padmé in Episode I, when she had this very stilted dialogue as the Queen. And also with Hayden in Episode II. He said, “I don’t want to be this whiny kid.” I said, “Well, you are. You gotta be a whiny teenager.”
Like father, like son.
He said, “I want to be Darth Vader.” I said, “You gotta be a petulant young Jedi. You’re not going to be the guy you thought you’d be when you signed your contract.” Hayden was grateful for this last movie, where he actually got to be Darth Vader.

In ROTS he did an amazing job at conveying Anakin's distress and inner turmoil throughout the film. He absolutely shone when he became Darth Vader and during the Mustafar scenes. His expressions were enough to give me chills, and he was absolutely amazing as the fallen hero persona.

Mark however was much better overall. His Luke was a much more solid character. You related to him, felt for him in his struggles and he didn't have the weakness of incredibly weak dialogue like Hayden "I don't like sand" Christensen did. He and Hayden are difficult to compare but if I had to break it down:


Conveying emotion with expressions alone: Hayden easily.

Pretending to be in pain: Eh, Hayden.

Range: By ROTS, probably Hayden, but Mark is very close.

Grief: Hayden for sure.

Anger: Mark, easily.

Expressing their character's inner turmoil: Hayden.


Overall performance: Mark was more solid, relatable and engaging. His range was more impressive than Hayden's (though Hayden proved he's definitely on par with Mark in overall acting) but Mark gets the edge for much more solid dialogue.


In my opinion, they're both around the same level in acting quality at the time of their roles in the films. Mark was lucky to have better directing, better dialogue and to not have the shadow of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) leaning over his character, allowing him to develop as his own character independent of anything else. By contrast, Hayden had terrible directing and dialogue (though it was infinitely better in ROTS than AOTC), as well as people constantly comparing his Anakin (who was meant to be whiny and immature by Lucas because George is a bit of a twat sometimes and can't imagine a 20-something year-old being mature and yet finding it difficult to control his possessiveness and emotions) to Darth Vader.


Overall, Mark is better but only because he had better directing and scripts. Hayden is massively underrated as an actor, and hopefully if he comes back to act again that will change.

The Jedi didn't even allow Anakin to visit his mother in the 10 years between TPM and AotC, and one of the Jedi practises is to be a cold emotionless prck. Think that's a good out of universe excuse to make Anakin a whiny teenager.

I personally don't think he did a good job portraying grief as of Revenge of the Sith, like when you guys grieve do you constantly start screaming? Luke's subtle facial expressions with the death of Ben and the Lars family are way more accurate to how at least I grieve and being that I judge the acting on the only comparison I have available (me) Mark did a better job

Hayden is better than Mark imo, I think Hayden is much more skilled in facial expressions or expressing emotions than Mark. It was only the sub-par script of George Lucas which hampered him down and made his performance seem less acceptable (>~<)b

Isv wrote:I personally don't think he did a good job portraying grief as of Revenge of the Sith, like when you guys grieve do you constantly start screaming? Luke's subtle facial expressions with the death of Ben and the Lars family are way more accurate to how at least I grieve and being that I judge the acting on the only comparison I have available (me) Mark did a better job

I was thinking more of scenes like these:

Hayden shines when he's acting with body language. He has his moments with dialogue too, but I don't think he's overall that great an actor. Mark was much better in the OT.

If this was simply RotS vs RotJ then Hayden, Luke was very stiff and cringy in RotJ especially with the Ewoks meanwhile Hayden’s performance as Anakin was very good for the character he was forced to play who isn’t really easy to portray on screen.

Luke was very stiff and cringy in RotJ 

https://youtu.be/U1MnMA0TzGI?t=244