How many directors get a bad performance from Samuel L Jackson, or Natalie Portman? Just one.
For a long time I had deemed Hayden, "Woodenhead" and my friends still refer to him as that, but after seeing some of his other work, and more importantly, alternate takes and screen tests from the prequels, its just not his fault.
He can act, he was just given direction like, "Now I want you to look away from her, talk a little slower, and ennuciate a lot more."
I think I feel sorriest for him of the prequel bunch, because he gets the most shit as an actor over the prequels, when the direction was really poor.