Ewan McGregor reveals a surprising fact about the production of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. The second film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy just recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary, and the timing is quite perfect. McGregor is set to reprise his role as the titular Jedi master in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Hayden Christensen, who made his Star Wars debut in Attack of the Clones, also returns in the series for the first time since the prequels. Attack of the Clones furthers the story of Anakin Skywalker (Christensen) as Obi-Wan uncovers brewing evil in the galaxy.

While the Star Wars prequels have gained more appreciation over time, as both McGregor and Christensen have noted during the press tour for Obi-Wan Kenobi, upon their release they were heavily criticized by audiences and older fans of the Star Wars franchise. Attack of the Clones in particular earned mixed reviews; its dialogue and acting was a significant source of criticism, as it was often noted as being wooden. However, there might be a major behind the scenes reason for why some things were awkward onscreen.

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McGregor reveals all the dialogue in Attack of the Clones had to be re-recorded. In an interview with SlashFilm, McGregor says that the new digital cameras they used to film Attack of the Clones created a strange hum that the filmmakers later discovered was the same frequency as human voices. All the actors had to come in and perform Additional Dialogue Recording (more commonly known as ADR) on film as none of the dialogue was usable, meaning the entire film was recorded in ADR. Read McGregor's full quote below:

"They were cutting edge technology, but compared to what we ... they had huge umbilical cords coming out the back of the cameras, and you couldn't change the lenses. Or, they could change the lenses but it would take like, half an hour. So everything was just shot on a zoom lens. The umbilicals led to this big tent in the corner of the stage that literally hummed. It was so noisy. And when in post-production, they realized at the end that the noise they made was exactly the frequency of the human voice. So we had to ADR every single line of Episode 2. None of the original dialogue made it through because of that, because the cameras were like, so new. None of the bugs had been worked out yet. So compared to what we're doing now, it's like night and day."

Obi-Wan and Anakin on an elevator in Attack of the Clones

ADR is common practice in filmmaking, especially with big blockbuster movies. Often, due to on-location shooting or massive VFX sequences, the audio captured on set is not useable, so it is common practice to go to a controlled space to get clean audio. It is also often used to add dialogue to clarify information for audiences after test screenings.  However, a whole film needing to be rerecorded with no trace of the original on-set dialogue is almost unheard of and must have added additional pressure on the Attack of the Clones cast, who were then tasked with fully recreating emotions and matching lip movements for the film's entirety all while being in a recording booth.

Despite this rather impressive task of re-recording the entire film, Attack of the Clones did not land an Oscar nomination for Best Sound or Best Sound Editing at the 75th Academy Awards, as the only nomination the movie landed was Best Visual Effects. Nevertheless, McGregor's story makes it hard not to appreciate the sound team on Attack of the Clones, as they managed to work past an incredible obstacle. Though not warmly received initially, the movie is now viewed in a different light. It has generated its own fanbase, thanks to The Clone Wars animated series, and writers are still finding new ways to expand the story. For example, author E.K. Johnston's latest book Star Wars: Queen’s Hope picks up right in the aftermath of the wedding between Anakin and Padme in Attack of the Clones. It looks like that additional strife paid off after all.

Next: Attack Of The Clones Has The Best Ending In Star Wars

Source: SlashFilm