Smash hit

What's it like to be the fifth person to have played Anakin Skywalker, following Prowse, Jones, Sebastian Shaw and Jake Lloyd?

When I was given the role it was specified that I was to be playing Anakin at a very specific point in his life. This is not the Jake Lloyd role and this is not the monotonal Darth Vader that we know from the original trilogy. I had a very contained concept of what I was doing. There is some disconnection between the Vaders, because they're all played by different people.

But you've since been inserted, in place of Shaw, at the end of the Return of the Jedi DVD.

I got a real kick out of that. They told me, "By the way, you're in Return of the Jedi and sent me a copy and there I was! It was neat - there I am next to Alec Guinness and Yoda.

Some critics saw your performance in Episode II: Attack of the Clones as whiny and annoying. How did you handle that?

It's what you subject yourself to when you sign up for the profession. You take the good with the bad and all of it with a pinch of salt.

Did you agree with some of the criticisms?

Sure. It's not something I like to talk about too much, but I agreed with some of it and disagreed with some of it, and had a laugh at the expense of almost everything else. Ultimately, you're reading someone's opinion, which is valid, but you're making movies - you're there to have fun.

If anything, I think this film will put a lot of those criticisms to rest. They'll almost seem like necessities. Some of the criticisms, as far as my portrayal of Anakin goes, are of qualities that are essential to his downfall. The ambition, the sense that there's an injustice to life, wanting to right those wrongs, wanting to have that sort of control. That frustration lends itself to a whiny quality: why can't I get my way? Why aren't things the way I'd like them to be? That evolves, and matures a little bit in this film, but it's still very much present.

So what can we expect from Episode III?

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010