buddy-x-wing said:

I still don't understand how introducing Anakin at such an early age did any service to the overall story, they should have gone with a mid-teen that was closer to Natalie Portman in age. The problem is you can't expect an audience to make an emotional attachment to a character they know will grow up to become DARTH VADER

By introducing Anakin so young they wasted a whole movie where they should have been establishing the friendship between Obi-Wan and Anakin, and the beginnings of a budding romance with Padme, and as a result none of their characters showed any character development until the 2nd film

 

 the problem is, lucas is not capable of doing that.  He has no real storytelling skills that involve characters arcs and relationships on even the most rudimentary level.  Of course, he also had nothing planned for the PT story - except maybe how the emporer was given his power.

you mention AOTC, but even in this film the characters are wasted - anakin and padmes relationship is laughable unless you forget TPM and just assume they have know each other for quite some time.  That elevator scene in AOTC - lucas shoehorned that in during pickups because he forgot that obi-wan and anakin were supposed to have a relationship.

I never bought Lucas had Anakin be nine-years-old because it was more "dramatic" that way, and that that was his intention all along.

It's clear that in ROTJ, when Obi-Wan says, "when I first met your father, he was already a great pilot", Lucas envisioned Anakin be older, around Luke's age, certainly not anywhere near nine. To cover up that fact he initially had no idea about Anakin being that young  in TPM, he has one of the first things Anakin says be "I'm a pilot, ya know, and I'm gonna fly away from here!"

Also, if being dramatic is your goal, you wouldn't hire a kid, give him crappy dialogue to say, and probably give him no more direction than "ok kid, here's your line, ok ya said it, good, cut, print!"  You'd really go out of your way to work with the kid, trying to coax a good performance out of him, which it's clear Lucas had little care for in the end.

adywan said:

Looks like The Sun (where the article first originated) has yet again been making crap up. :

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=411096898907652&id=135520326465312

Here's The Sun article.  They claim "a magazine" as their source:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/4170549/Star-Wars-Anakin-Skywalker-star-Jake-Lloyd-I-will-never-act-again.html

I don't know who to believe.  Is The Sun a tabloid?

It seems whenever an actor speaks out against GL, a denial/retraction/clarification/apology is issued after a few days.

evan1975 wrote: They claim "a magazine" as their source:

This could be the source:

http://www.blackbookmag.com/movies/don-t-expect-to-see-the-phantom-menace-s-jake-lloyd-ever-act-again-1.45583

They have the an old interview video at the bottom.  The article contains some of the quotes (from the video ...creepy) and others are interpretations.  and the rest could be real but we'll probably never know.

and the blackbookmag points to:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2110383/Anakin-Skywalker-actor-Jake-Lloyd-Star-Wars-fame-turned-life-living-hell.html

which i guess is a direct competitor of the Sun so that's why they've referenced the mag instead of the mail.

In the vein of prequel actors talking about TPM.  Ewan McGregor sez:

I was happy to be in them.

http://www.slashfilm.com/film-interview-ewan-mcgregor-talks-salmon-fishing-yemen-jack-giant-killer-star-wars

...f a s c i n a t i n g...

Having met Jake on more than one occasion I can say he's definitely a nice guy.

Honestly, when I look back at all the hysteria about the prequel trilogy I'm a bit embarassed. Yeah, they're not great, but they're also not as bad as people thought 10 years ago. Far worse things have hit the screen since that time including Twilight and Avatar(d).

I remember getting into a 10 page argument with some wanker on this forum just because I dared to say that I took my kids to see the Clone Wars movie and we all had a good time. Apparently that's blasphemy in the eyes of certain ass pained faboys.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

If you stop and think about it, it is quite an accomplishment of sorts to make a movie that is so bad that it not only literally ends the lead actor's career, but also ruins his life.  Has there ever been another movie that can make that claim?

was about to mention faye dunaway and Mommy Dearest, but not sure if she went as far as to say her life was ruined.

"""Unfortunately, Star Wars fans were less than thrilled about meeting Darth Vader as an adorable young moppet, and they soon laid into him with a rancor uncharacteristic of Star Wars fans, except those Star Wars fans whose favorite character is the Rancor."""

...I have yet to meet the fan who's favorite character is the Rancor...  I would love to chat with one, that would be quite interesting... :D :D :D