Anakin Skywalker's 'Wattanese' Dialogue In Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones Was Completely Improvised
When it comes to science fiction and fantasy, it certainly doesn't hurt to build your world thoroughly. Series like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Game of Thrones" are backed by a substantial amount of lore, with whole languages, maps, and family trees drawn out to help sustain every dizzying storyline.
Alternatively, though, there are certain worldbuilders that couldn't care less about that sort of thing. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas is infamously casual about the minutiae of his galaxy far away, even when it comes to pronouncing the names of characters and planets. That same energy even extends to some of the languages that pop up across the Skywalker Saga. Though Lucas's laissez-faire has tripped up quite a few of his actors from time to time, it presented an interesting challenge for Hayden Christensen, who worked with Lucas in "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" and its follow-up, "Revenge of the Sith."
Chut-chut, Watto!
"Attack of the Clones" sees Christensen's Anakin Skywalker returning to his home planet of Tatooine. There, he encounters Watto, a Toydarian trader who once owned Anakin and his mother, Shmi. In their scene together, the two converse in a dialect that Lucas called "Wattanese" — which, before filming, had yet to be developed.
"The script had the dialogue written in English and then, in parentheses, it said: 'in Wattanese,'" Christensen told the Hollywood Reporter. "It wasn't until the day before we started filming that I went to George, and I was like, 'What should Wattanese sound like?'"
Lucas, in true form, wasn't overly concerned with the intricacies of the language. In fact, he was more than willing to allow Christensen to figure it out himself. "[H]e was like, 'Well, you know, so long as it doesn't sound like English or any other language that might sound familiar. You can just make it up.'"
Christensen remembers his last-minute scramble to translate his lines into Wattanese the night before. And as stressful as it might have been for the actor, the scene remains one of his favorites. "Every time I see that scene, I get a bit of a kick out of it."
So do we, Hayden. So do we.