Throughout its long history, the Star Wars franchise has had many actors and actresses, young and old, whether they are established stars or new faces, become a part of the galaxy far, far away. 
While the first film in 1977 had multiple established stars such as Alec Guinness as the wise old Obi-Wan Kenobi or Peter Cushing as the evil Grand Moff Tarkin, many new stars emerged with names like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and especially Harrison Ford becoming overnight icons.
This continued into the Star Wars Prequels from 1999 – 2005—many great names like Liam Neeson. Samual L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Terence Stamp played parts in the series. But younger actors getting their start, such as Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and even Hayden Christensen, became well-known faces.
One of those actors from the prequel films was Joel Edgerton. The 28-year-old Australian actor had appeared in multiple minor roles, such as 1996’s Race The Sun and 1999’s Everlasting Kings. But, he arguably got his break into Hollywood thanks to being cast in 2002’s Attack of the Clones as a young Owen Lard (Originally played by Phil Brown in A New Hope). Edgerton would revise the role briefly in Revenge of the Sith three years later.
After his arguably small appearance, his career went up from there with 2004’s King Arthur, 2010’s Legend of the Guardians, 2011’s Warrior, 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty, 2013’s The Great Gatsby, 2015’s Black Mass, 2016’s Loving and 2018’s Red Sparrow.
In a recent interview, while promoting his new film The Gift, the actor expressed his gratitude to George Lucas for helping him go further in his career and giving him opportunities he didn’t have before.
“I owe so much in my career to George, giving me that job. It opened all the doors to Hollywood. It allowed everyone in L.A. to kind of welcome me and go, ‘Oh, he’s in Star Wars. Let’s give him an audition for other things’. So I put aside any of my reticence about returning and I saw it as a way to complete a circle of some kind.“
Edgerton returned once more as a middle-aged Owen Lars in the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney+. It was a welcomed return that both he and fans enjoyed.
What do you think? Did Star Wars give him his big break in Hollywood?
Source: comicbook.com
Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, opinionated fan-powered news blog that covers Disney and Universal Theme Parks, Themed Entertainment and related Pop Culture from a consumer's point of view. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its editors, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial news source and has no connection to The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we may cover.
