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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
As told to Rich Pelley

Joel Edgerton: ‘I’d be terrified to fight Tom Hardy now’

Joel Edgerton.
‘I nearly got booted out of drama school because I couldn’t sing’ … Joel Edgerton. Photograph: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Joel Edgerton with Bonnie Piesse in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
Edgerton with Bonnie Piesse in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Photograph: Lucasfilm/Allstar

How did you get the job of Uncle Owen [in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones]? Was it solely based on your similar looks to original actor Phil Brown? Also, you must have known you were going to get killed off! TopTramp
George Lucas was shooting in Australia. I have the Australian Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance to thank for saying: “You need to hire some local actors.” I was the right age and had the physical similarity. My brother [Nash Edgerton] left university to become a stunt man – much to my parents’ upset – and started working on the big Hollywood productions that came through Sydney, like The Matrix and Mission: Impossible 2. He got the job as Ewan McGregor’s stunt double. Any of the big, serious, dangerous stuff Ewan does in Episodes II and III, like fighting Jango Fett in the rain, my brother is likely getting a knock on the chin.

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