Phillppe Confirms Anakin Audition

"There is a part of me that really wanted the role," Phillippe said. "And I got pretty far down to the final cut. I got to test with Natalie Portman, who is Princess Amidala. In real life, I'm seven years older than her, which was dubbed too old. At age 29, I was an over-the-hill Anakin."

The spurned Phillippe, however, had some dish on George Lucas. "I wanted to ask him a zillion 'Star Wars' questions because I'm such a fan," Phillippe said of his meeting with Lucas at Skywalker Ranch. "But all he talked about was 'Howard the Duck' and how proud he was about it."

Lucas revealed something about "Episode II" to Phillippe sure to make the fans cringe. "He told me how intent he was to make Jar Jar as big a part of this one despite the criticism of the character in 'Episode I,'" Phillippe recalled.