A man involved in a horrific car crash is pronounced dead, only to come back to life an hour and a half later, claiming to have seen Heaven. Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films.

HE WAS a huge star at the height of his fame when he turned his back on Hollywood to instead run his own farm. And now, Hayden Christensen has explained why.

When he was just 19 years old, the Canadian actor landed the role of Anakin Skywalker in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.

He reprised the role in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, but then he retreated from his life of stardom because he felt like he hadn’t earned his success.

“I guess I felt like I had this great thing in Star Wars that provided all these opportunities and gave me a career, but it all kind of felt a little too handed to me,” said Christensen to the LA Times.

“I didn’t want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave.”

In 2007 the star bought a farm about an hour from Toronto, saying at the time, “It’s currently a hay farm, but I want it to be a working farm. I want to fill the barn with livestock. First pigs, then cattle and horses.”

He still acted occasionally, appearing in 2008’s Jumper where he met The O.C star Rachel Bilson (they’re still together and they have a daughter), but he lost his desire to be a famous actor.

After years on the farm, the 34-year-old is now ready to give acting another shot, and this time he wants to earn his success.

“You can’t take years off and not have it affect your career,” said Christensen to the LA Times.

“But I don’t know — in a weird, sort of destructive way, there was something appealing about that to me. There was something in the back of my head that was like, ‘If this time away is gonna be damaging to my career, then so be it. If I can come back afterward and claw my way back in, then maybe I’ll feel like I earned it.’”

Christensen’s comeback role was as Piper in 90 Minutes in Heaven alongside Kate Bosworth, which was released in September in the US.

Reviews weren’t great, though, with Variety saying Christensen “underplays” throughout the film., “even in scenes when Piper isn’t operating under the influence of painkillers, and his earnestness often comes off as monotonous. Still, he generates interest and sympathy, almost in spite of himself.”

And the LA Times said: As the anguished Piper, Hayden Christensen commits to his sombre part but seems hemmed in by its beatific nature. That he spends so much of the movie lying immobile in a hospital bed adds to this sense of constraint.”