TheBoost said:
C3PX said:
TheBoost said:
Although how famous was Bale back when AOTC came out?

He had been in a lot of high profile movies by that time and his name was well known. He had been in Disney's Treasure Island with Charlton Heston, Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, American Psycho, and The Newsies, to name a few off the top of my head.

In 2002, the same year AOTC was released, he starred in the (semi) Fahrenheit 451 adaption titled Equilibrium and was big enough to have his name advertised on the movie poster (though I think the movie was a bit of a flop, I for one rather liked it).

I guess he was a mid to low level movie star. Not particuarly more famous than Ewan McGregor was (although i think a bit old for Anakin).

But he did kick ass in Newsies.

Certainly too old for Anakin as the prequels stand now, but I fervently believe that the huge age gap was a mistake (particularly given the nine-year-old character introduction, complete with an embarrassingly cringe-worthy delivery by Jake "Are you an angel?" Lloyd). If Anakin had been closer to Obi-Wan's age, the comraderie between them George wanted to establish in Ep. II and - on an even deeper level - Ep. III, would've worked far better. Furthermore, such an approach (casting someone Bale's age in Ep. I) would've heightened the tension in Ep. V when Luke asks to be trained, and Yoda is initially insistent that he's too old. The audience would be thinking, "Uh oh, Anakin was about this age when he started training, and look how badly that turned out! Is Luke going to fall too?"