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Jake Lloyd: "My entire school life was really a living hell."

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http://www.avclub.com/articles/star-wars-episode-i-actor-jake-lloyd-has-been-thro,70466/

Always felt bad for this kid, imagining the ridicule he must have taken since TPM, both from fans who don't know him and from people with whom he went to school.

A couple of years ago I saw this interview which also showed he has had a rough time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtkM2JPcHPo

Too bad some people blame an EIGHT-/NINE-YEAR-OLD KID for the shittiness of TPM. Nevermind the shitty writing and directing. I was 14 when TPM came out and back then I knew the real problem wasn't with Jake Lloyd. Never hated on him once, I can attest to that.

“Grow up. These are my Disney's movies, not yours.”

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He went to college near Indianapolis and got his video games from my friend's GameStop and even participated in a Halo tournament. He's apparently pretty cool.

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Kids can be thoughtless and cruel.

Having a nice big bank account from TPM is probably the best revenge. ;)

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 (Edited)

SilverWook said:

Kids can be thoughtless and cruel.

Having a nice big bank account from TPM is probably the best revenge. ;)

 I know liam neeson got some kind of profit sharing deal, but did jake lloyd have a big contract?

probably enough for college tuition ;)

[sigh] man...the scene with him and his family signing that contract; they were so happy at the time.

The criticsm he got was out of control. 

so was ewan...

and poor ahmed best :(

how annoying it was to see rick mccallum joke around about trying to get natalie to sign a 3 picture deal without having yet see one script.  Im not a fan of hers, but knowing how she was once pretty picky with roles, she would have been so appalled at how meaningless her character would end up being (anyway to search your prior posts? i feel like I've said this before somewhere else).

I think samuel L Jackson was the only one who was happy the whole time cuz it was just one giant play-time for a fan.  and maybe McDiarmid cuz he was revisiting his greatest role and it was more interesting compared to the other PT characters.

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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walking_carpet said:

 (anyway to search your prior posts? i feel like I've said this before somewhere else).

I'm telling you, carpet, if we just had that twitter-like feed, you'd find all your old comments in the George-bashing thread ;)

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walking_carpet said:  and maybe McDiarmid cuz he was revisiting his greatest role and it was more interesting compared to the other PT characters.

Several classy writers including a certain Mr Shakespeare of Warwickshire would like to have words with you :-D

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darth_ender said:

walking_carpet said:

 (anyway to search your prior posts? i feel like I've said this before somewhere else).

I'm telling you, carpet, if we just had that twitter-like feed, you'd find all your old comments in the George-bashing thread ;)

 no no no..im not talking about apologists, personality cults, Once Proud Saga Formerly Known as Star Wars and what not...i talk about those things every third post.  i just coulda sworn i talked about how almost all the actors hated their experience on the PT. verbatim! maybe deja vu

besides..that thread only had a couple of my posts.  It was the red tails thread that i really went off on him ;P

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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Bingowings said:

walking_carpet said:  and maybe McDiarmid cuz he was revisiting his greatest role and it was more interesting compared to the other PT characters.

Several classy writers including a certain Mr Shakespeare of Warwickshire would like to have words with you :-D

 hmmm...based on wiki, looks like he is more of a theatre actor than movie actor.

alright, ill re-edit to most-famous role.

click here if lack of OOT got you down

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walking_carpet said:



SilverWook said:

Kids can be thoughtless and cruel.

Having a nice big bank account from TPM is probably the best revenge. ;)


 I know liam neeson got some kind of profit sharing deal, but did jake lloyd have a big contract?

probably enough for college tuition ;)

[sigh] man...the scene with him and his family signing that contract; they were so happy at the time.

The criticsm he got was out of control. 

so was ewan...

and poor ahmed best :(

how annoying it was to see rick mccallum joke around about trying to get natalie to sign a 3 picture deal without having yet see one script.  Im not a fan of hers, but knowing how she was once pretty picky with roles, she would have been so appalled at how meaningless her character would end up being (anyway to search your prior posts? i feel like I've said this before somewhere else).

I think samuel L Jackson was the only one who was happy the whole time cuz it was just one giant play-time for a fan.  and maybe McDiarmid cuz he was revisiting his greatest role and it was more interesting compared to the other PT characters.


Ewan got crap? He was fine.

That whole movie was a mess. It was like your dad telling you that he's taking you to the circus and when you get there, you witness a car-wreck.

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"Jake Lloyd according to Jake Lloyd"

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Yeah I recall giving him some criticism back when TPM was released, and I heavily regret it.  I think he tried with what he had to work with.  He was in some talented company in Ewan and Liam.  I hope Jake is doing well and is happy in life.

"There's no cluster of midiclorians that controls my destiny!" -Han Solo, from a future revision of ANH

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I admit that when I watched the Random Premise Blu-ray a couple weeks ago I laughed in a derisive manner and made unkind remarks whenever the young Mr. Lloyd delivered a line.

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I'm sure he is an awesome guy and got undue personal tormenting at school but you also have be fair to yourself in that it's not some personal shame to have criticized his performance, unless you were really mean and personal. Frankly, his performance wasn't good, partly because he was miscast and, I must assume, poorly directed, but also because as far as nine-year-old child actors go he just wasn't that good. Fine for television or something like that, but not good enough to carry a major film. I guess in that respect you have to blame George Lucas for putting him in that position when he should have known that the kid couldn't cut it; the kid himself doesn't know any better, and his parents are just trying to be supportive so of course they are going to encourage him, but the blame really does fall to Lucas for putting someone that naive under so big a spotlight. We've all seen that audition scene on the Episode I documentary where there was a really good runner-up actor that would not have received the amount of critcism as Lloyd did.

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I agree with Zombie that he was miscast and did a mediocre (not bad, in my opinion) job, but he did have an aggressive, rambunctious look to him as a boy which was probably the reason for his hiring. Really, I think that the character should've been AT LEAST 13 years old, for a variety of reasons.  (Most especially that it's hard to say that an eight year old is "too attached" to things.  Virtually all kids that age are very, very adaptive to whatever crazy situation they have to live through.)

But I also think that it's probably wrong of people to have such pity on anybody.  So he was teased for this.  Fine.  We all get teased.  God forbid you're ugly, or fat, or socially inept, or stupid.  Kids get teased.  Hell, ADULTS get teased.  Instead of telling kids that they should live in the past and attempt to "heal the scarring" or whatever the psychological fad of the day is, we should say, "Ah dude, that sucks.  I remember being teased for my acne and that my mom cut my hair.  That really hurt me.  Well, that's life.  Let's move on."

It just sets a bad example for current kids (and adults) that they should let every tease (real or imagined) dictate their life.  "Sticks and stones", remember.

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Lucas himself, IIRC.

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Going by the documentary on the DVD it looks like George made the final choice from a selection of three broken down by the casting staff.

This the one I would have chosen :

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 (Edited)

Perhaps it was Jake's previous form on a biggish budget movie that swung it for him.

He also looked like a younger Leonardo Di Karprio, if you know what I mean?

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He chose Lloyd because Lloyd was the cuter of the two. That's what it comes down to. He had the sweeter face. I think in his head he had this idea of Vader being the most un-Vader-like kid in the world, a sort of poster child for The Good Kid, maybe someone he saw the way he saw his own son, and Lloyd lacked the acting chops but had the right image. The runner-up was more mature looking and had a bit more edge to him (he also looked way more plausible as Mark Hamill's father), but Lloyd had that wide-eyed, rosy-cheeked looked that Lucas thought was more important. Style over substance as usual, I guess.

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I thought the other kid fitted that bill better (sorry I don't know his name).

If I was casting Anakin and Padme I would have made Anakin have Leia's dark hair and Padme have Luke's blonde hair, Leia is conspicuously close to a lot of chokings.

If I were to put money on one of them going bad I would back the Princess.

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Bingowings said:

Going by the documentary on the DVD it looks like George made the final choice from a selection of three broken down by the casting staff.

This the one I would have chosen :

 

 Indeed. He looks like a mini Sebastian Shaw.

 

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so does no one know non jake lloyds name?

Really wonder if he went on to do anything?

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DavidBrennan said:

I agree with Zombie that he was miscast and did a mediocre (not bad, in my opinion) job, but he did have an aggressive, rambunctious look to him as a boy which was probably the reason for his hiring. Really, I think that the character should've been AT LEAST 13 years old, for a variety of reasons.  (Most especially that it's hard to say that an eight year old is "too attached" to things.  Virtually all kids that age are very, very adaptive to whatever crazy situation they have to live through.)

But I also think that it's probably wrong of people to have such pity on anybody.  So he was teased for this.  Fine.  We all get teased.  God forbid you're ugly, or fat, or socially inept, or stupid.  Kids get teased.  Hell, ADULTS get teased.  Instead of telling kids that they should live in the past and attempt to "heal the scarring" or whatever the psychological fad of the day is, we should say, "Ah dude, that sucks.  I remember being teased for my acne and that my mom cut my hair.  That really hurt me.  Well, that's life.  Let's move on."

It just sets a bad example for current kids (and adults) that they should let every tease (real or imagined) dictate their life.  "Sticks and stones", remember.

The line between teasing and outright psychological bullying isn't very thick.

I saw a documentary on TCM a while back about child stars, and it's a miracle any of them who were interviewed survived to become normal well adjusted adults. We all remember the names of the one's who didn't.

Jake is going to have this movie following him around the rest of his life. Most kids don't have that to deal with on top of the usual pressures of growing up and trying to fit in. So you might want to cut him some slack?

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