Star Wars The Clone Wars: Matt Lanter voices a hero in 'Star Wars'

Fans can see Matt Lanter on two TV shows beginning Oct. 2, but they have to pay close attention.

Matt Lanter is Anakin Skywalker.

Lanter, who plays high school hottie Liam Court on The CW's "90210," voices the Anakin Skywalker character on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." The animated series' second season begins at 7 p.m. Friday on the Cartoon Network.

"It's really great," he told me recently. "Doing voice over, it's just fun. You don't have to worry about lighting [or] marks. You don't have to worry about what you look like. You don't have to worry about any of that stuff. You just go in there, you soak into the character and have fun with it."

Playing Anakin offers Lanter another perk: He gets to be a hero, even if he's a cartoon hero. "You get to be a savior of the Republic," he said. "I like that."

Lanter talked about meeting George Lucas, how his the "Star Wars" voice-overs are done and why his mother sometimes thinks Luke is actually him. (Click here for Lanter talking about "90210" and the film "Sorority Row."

In "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," you voice Anakin Skywalker. How did you get that job?
"Clone Wars" was pretty much just an everyday voice-over audition. My agent sent me into the producers [and] we went into the studio. They told me it was "Star Wars." They told me a specific character; this guy's name was Deke Starkiller. I tried to research it but I couldn't find anything on it. ... I get in there and all the producers are in there except George [Lucas], obviously. I'm sure he was doing something much more important than watching my audition. I get in there and they told me to give them my best combination of Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker. So I did what I did and--

Were you reading for Anakin?
I was reading for Anakin, but they didn't tell me that, yeah. A couple days later, they called me and said, "You got the job. Actually, you're a lead of the series and you're Anakin Skywalker." I think the reason they didn't tell me--this is just my guess--they didn't want to tell me I was reading for Anakin because Anakin, in the film, he gets such a bad rap for being whiny and kind of a cry-baby. They kind of wanted to change that perception of him in "Clone Wars." He's a little bit more of a hero. He's this great commander and an outstanding Jedi Knight. I think they wanted to show him in that respect before he kind of starts that spiral to the dark side.

How was it meeting George Lucas?
It was great. I went up to the ranch before I started recording, I walked into his office, they took me up to meet him and I walked in and he says, "Anakin." So getting called Anakin by George Lucas was a pretty memorable moment. It was great. He's a nice guy. We sat down in his office, chatted for a couple of minutes ... about taking the character in a bit of a new direction. I think through George and Dave Filoni, our supervising producer, and obviously through me, we kind of found this new Anakin and it's been working. The show is outstanding. It's the highest-rated cable show in their demographic, which is, I don't know, boys 6 to 15 or something. It's all over the world and it's a huge deal. It's working.

Did you think it would be such a big deal?
I didn't grow up in the "Star Wars" realm. I had seen a little bit here and there, but I really didn't understand or know just how huge the fan base is and how worldwide this fan base is. I just thought I was joining this animation; I was going to be some kind of "Star Wars" thing and it'd be on TV. That is all I knew; I didn't know there was going to be toys with my voice on it. I didn't know it was going to be this huge [deal]. I just had no idea. It's big.

I read that your mom says she thinks she's watching you when she sees Anakin.
Yeah, my mom, she records "Star Wars." She always laughs about thinking that's actually me. She gets to watch me on "90210" and "Star Wars" every week. I have to remind her, "Ma, it's just a cartoon."

Did they do the animation after seeing you or--
No, they actually had the model designs prior to me coming on board. I've gotten so many people telling me that I look similar to the model, which is, I guess, just coincidence. But a lot of people tell me that I look more like this Anakin than Hayden [Christensen] does. ... When they go to actually animate the [episodes], they actually do animate to our voices. Some of the characteristics, inflections and body movements, they'll actually incorporate into the animation because they'll videotape us for the animators. They can kind of reference our movements and our gestures that kind of goes into the characters. Some of the body language and body movements actually get translated from me into that character.

What is the recording schedule like?
We go maybe twice a month and we just record one episode at a time. We try to get all the voice actors together in one room so we kind of play off each other. ... It's a great way to do it because we actually get to use each others energy, but they'll get us together. It takes about four or five hours to record an episode. ... It's doesn't take up all that much time but of course we also do video games and all that kind of stuff and computer games and kids toys. There's definitely a lot to do, it's not just about recording the episode there.