Jake Lloyd: "My entire school life was really a living hell." — Page 2

It could be worse.

A certain young man from Quebec (sounds like the beginning of a limerick), got much of the same (if not worse) and he didn't even get to be in a Star Wars movie.

walking_carpet said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

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.

 I meant to say - jake lloyd was happy to be on star wars - and so was ewan.

but they both feel differently now.

 

 

Don't lump McGregor in with Lloyd. While he's been critical about elements of the movies and admits the OT is better than the PT, McGregor's always been respectful and has said pretty good things about the "overall experience" and GL as well. This was actually posted to AV Club today: 

AVC: Right now, Haywire and Perfect Sense are both out in theaters, Salmon Fishingis coming out, the Phantom Menace revival is out. How are you dealing with the press demands for four films at once?  

EM: Luckily, I’m shooting something at the moment, so I have to kind of bear down, anyway. [Laughs.] ’Cause I don’t have time. I did a round of press for Haywire. Perfect Sense is a little film—they don’t have any money to publicize the film, really, so I’ve done a few phoners for that, but there hasn’t been a huge amount of press for that. And the Star Wars re-release, I haven’t been asked to any press at all for. I think it’s publicizing itself, because it’s Star Wars, y’know? 

AVC: George Lucas seems like, famously, someone who wouldn’t work well with your methods: He doesn’t like rehearsal or, reportedly, a lot of spontaneous exploration on the set. How did you work together?

EM: Well, you still have to make the characters real and in the moment, and that’s your job, so that’s always gonna be the case there. The technical aspect of the Star Wars films is difficult, because there’s no environment. A lot of the time, anyway, we were working on bluescreen sets or greenscreen sets where there’s nothing there at all, and oftentimes, no other actor to work with. Somebody’s just reading lines off the side of the set, and you’re looking at a tennis ball on a stick. So that becomes much more of a technical exercise. But at the same time, it’s still going in the movie, and it still has to be believable. But I like working with George. I like very much being part of the legend of Star Wars. It’s nice to be in that. 

when I read that last bit from McGreggor all my mind hears is "you can't act when you have NOTHING to act against/with/to.... But I sure do like those royalty checks! And it was fun to play with a lightsaber."

Also, part of me is glad to see him take the high road & stay positive when there's clearly PLENTY of negative things he could go on & on about. But on the other hand, it'd be nice to see him, Neeson, & others speak more candidly about the faults & shortcomings of both the films & their director. Not that I want to see them be nasty, but just honest. People in the media & Hollywood seem too afraid to call Lucas out when he makes bad decisions these days... It's getting old.

georgec said:

This is as close as I've seen one of the principal actors come to criticizing the prequels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z08pO0nDCPA

I love that interview, one of my favourites.

"Look at the moons!!"

Ewan is a great guy, you should see his interviews with Craig Ferguson, the two grew up together in Scotland and it makes for some of the best talk-show material I've ever seen.

w_c: No idea on that. I know McCallum had a heavier role in the EpIII casting and making sure actors had rehearsal time and so forth, but the strength of any and all roles resided on the script written by George, so it's not really clear what impact casting directors would have had. I mean, Episode I had one of the best casts of 1999, which was a breakthrough year in the movies, and the film sucked in terms of acting, so casting doesn't mean squat when Lucas is the last word. But I do think they put more emphasis on performance for Episode III, and I get the impression that Rick McCallum was the one that was pushing for that.

zombie84 said:

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.

I don't feel bad for saying that he was a bad actor, but I do feel bad for blaming him for ruining TPM/Star Wars.

I know most people blamed Jar Jar-- how when he first showed up on screen, they got an "Oh sh*t" sinking feeling in their gut.  For me, that didn't happen until Anakin/Jake appeared.  He happened to debut in the dullest, dumbest stretch of the film.  One of the first things he does is build C-3PO (which still irks me) and deliver some of the lamest lines in movie history.

It took me a long time to realize that the guy that wrote those terrible lines, that picked and directed those actors was the one I really should be blaming.  That man was a guy I had really looked up to, and I suppose I tried hard not to face that fact and placed blame on others.

Ewan McGregor... that cove... he clearly remembers the name of that planet from that really cool film his uncle was in.

He's milking it to keep his street cred (bless him).

Bingowings said:

It could be worse.

A certain young man from Quebec (sounds like the beginning of a limerick), got much of the same (if not worse) and he didn't even get to be in a Star Wars movie.

Ha ha.

Although, I have to say....watching AOTC now in HD, seeing all the "Jedi" in the much-hyped Geonosis arena scene ("Finally see the Jedi at their peak!")....Star Wars Kid was at least as cool-looking as any of those people.  I mean, they were just mindlessly swaying sticks around in the air.  There was no logic at all to the Jedi lightsaber activity (or blaster firing) in that scene, and I'm deadly serious that Star Wars Kid was as good as those Jedi actors.

Mr. Bungle said:

AVC: George Lucas seems like, famously, someone who wouldn’t work well with your methods: He doesn’t like rehearsal or, reportedly, a lot of spontaneous exploration on the set. How did you work together?

EM: Well, you still have to make the characters real and in the moment, and that’s your job, so that’s always gonna be the case there. The technical aspect of the Star Wars films is difficult, because there’s no environment. A lot of the time, anyway, we were working on bluescreen sets or greenscreen sets where there’s nothing there at all, and oftentimes, no other actor to work with. Somebody’s just reading lines off the side of the set, and you’re looking at a tennis ball on a stick. So that becomes much more of a technical exercise. But at the same time, it’s still going in the movie, and it still has to be believable. But I like working with George. I like very much being part of the legend of Star Wars. It’s nice to be in that. 

 

I defy anybody to watch 'Capturing Avatar' (or the dozens of terrific "Making of" featurettes that the production released for free online leading up to 'Avatar's release) and compare that to the PT.  James Cameron's philosophy for creating quality performances for actors in synthetic environments (all green screen for the PT, mostly performance cap for AVTR) was 100% the opposite.

Just watch the opening speeches!  Before shooting on one of the PT movies began, Rick McCallum gives a speech that basically goes, "We're on a tight budget so let's get this shit over with in 60 days, people!"  Conversely, James Cameron's speech was, "Thank you so much for all you've done.  I'm so impressed.  We have a long, hard road ahead of us, and there are going to be many late nights and wrong turns.  But we're all in this together and let's make a great product."

The end result?  AVTR was the biggest hit ever, the PT movies are mostly a punchline.  (Though I think this is sad, because I think ROTS was still great.)

DavidBrennan said:

Star Wars Kid was better than those Jedi actors.

theprequelsrule said:

DavidBrennan said:

I defy anybody to watch 'Capturing Avatar' (or the dozens of terrific "Making of" featurettes that the production released for free online leading up to 'Avatar's release) and compare that to the PT.  James Cameron's philosophy for creating quality performances for actors in synthetic environments (all green screen for the PT, mostly performance cap for AVTR) was 100% the opposite.

 

Yeah, but it didn't matter in the end; I thought Avatar was crap. Every fictional Cameron film since True Lies has been an unintentional comedy. Compare the "acting" in Avatar with that in Aliens or Terminator.

But modern audiences have held blockbuster films to lower and lower standards for many years now. I think the only major summer blockbuster of the last 15 years that I have enjoyed was Iron Man.

And for the record: Jake Lloyd's acting sucked in TPM. He actually lowered the quality of the dialogue by his terrible delivery - quite a feat.

Thanks for all your opinions and declarative statements.  I'm sure you have a great grasp of the engineering logistics and technological processes that I was referencing, too. 

And, "every fictional Cameron film since True Lies" is a real long list there, chief: Avatar and Titanic.  The fact that you used "every" rather than "both" is evidence that you have no clue what the hell you're babbling about, which was kind of obvious, anyway. 

You're going to respond with a bunch more declarative statements and proclamations of film technology expertise.  So, to save myself the time later on, I'll just write in this post: "Thanks for your declarative statements and opinions."

Another thing I could never get about the portrayal of Anakin in the PT is his accent.

Luke has basically the same accent as Beru and Owen.

Anakin sounds nothing like his mother or Watto.

He hangs around the other slave children but he is a slave so we are led to assume he has less contact with them than most school children have with their peers.

When he grows up he is around Obi-Wan most of the time and still has that accent.

When his mask comes off he sounds like Obi-Wan.

Bingowings said:

Another thing I could never get about the portrayal of Anakin in the PT is his accent.

Luke has basically the same accent as Beru and Owen.

Anakin sounds nothing like his mother or Watto.

He hangs around the other slave children but he is a slave so we are led to assume he has less contact with them than most school children have with their peers.

When he grows up he is around Obi-Wan most of the time and still has that accent.

When his mask comes off he sounds like Obi-Wan.

Hell is relative though.

If your entire life is spent with other kids picking through toxic rubbish for something of any value to sell for basic necessities, finding something which doesn't make you sick and is worth a little bit is a heavenly moment.

If your peers are well fed, comfortably housed and in rude health, constantly being pointed at and mocked for something you did as a small child could be described as a living hell.

If Lucas had made his fictional character start off with life choices like the children in the picture above it would arguably have made for a better film and Mr Lloyd might have had a better time.

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

You mean I get to be with you in a *movie?*