In 1999, when the world was beginning (barely, unfortunately) to focus on little Jake Lloyd after the release of “The Phantom Menace”, Ron Howard did not hesitate to come to the boy’s defense. Discover his scathing remarks.
He landed the role that was to launch his career. And yet, fate wanted it otherwise. Indeed, when Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released, the critics were not kind to little Jake Lloyd, then aged 9, who had been chosen from more than 3,000 candidates to play the coveted role of Anakin Skywalker.
And while his mother recently spoke out, denying that this was the reason he stopped acting – indeed, after The Phantom Menacewe never saw again Jake Lloyd on screen with the exception of a single film, Madison, in 2005, which he had already shot in 1999 – it still must not have been very easy for the young boy who was made fun of in playgrounds.
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Ron Howard, furious
At the time, however, some tried to protect him, starting with Ron Howard, the famous director to whom we owe films such as Apollo 13 and An Exceptional Man and who also, and above all, is a former child star himself.
Even before the release of The Phantom MenaceNewsweek magazine had in fact published an article criticizing the performance of Jake Lloyd – an article that did not please at all Ron Howard. And it is furious that he sent a most scathing letter to the journalist responsible, on January 14, 1999, to read below.
“Dear Ms. Cooper:
While your ‘Buzz Wars, Episode One’ article was generally sarcastic and tasteless, the shot at nine-year-old Jake Lloyd was downright irresponsible. The article cites anonymous ‘insiders’ who criticize the nine-year-old’s performance. I have no way of knowing how accomplished or professional he may have appeared during principal photography, but I seriously doubt that these ‘insiders’ are involved enough to have seen an edited version of the new Stars Wars, because I don’t know. I’ve seen it and in my opinion, Jake Lloyd is great in the movie (which, by the way, is truly amazing).
Films are subject to public scrutiny, sure, but for Newsweek to attack a child’s performance based on rumors and without even having seen the film is shameful.
As someone who played professionally from a young age, I can assure you that nine-year-old Jake is fully capable of reading, understanding and feeling the full humiliation of an article like that. However, he may not understand why it was printed, but obviously neither do I. Maybe someone from your editorial team should try to explain it to him.
Sincerely,
Ron Howard.”
Mark Hamill of the same opinion
Ron Howard is not the only one to have defended Jake Lloyd over time. In 2017, during the Sundance Film Festival, the famous interpreter of Luke Skywalker admitted to still being angry about the way the young boy had been treated.
“I’m still angry about the way they [les fans et les critiques, NDLR] treated Jake Lloyd. He was only ten years old at the time, and yet he did exactly what George asked and expected of him. Trust me, I know what it’s like to have awkward dialogue sometimes”, he then declared to Vulture.
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Regarding the violence of certain criticisms of the prelogy, he added: “I couldn’t believe some of the things written about the prequels. I mean, beyond ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘you ruined my childhood’.”
Upon its release, however, The Phantom Menace was so successful that it even became the second biggest hit of all time behind Titanic.
He didn’t stop playing because of Star Wars
After the film, the young boy moved away from the spotlight, although he suffered the mockery of children in the playgrounds.
“The other kids were really mean to me”, he admitted years later, in 2012, about his “classmates” (via Daily Mail). “They imitated the sound of the lightsaber every time they saw me. It was completely crazy. My entire schooling was hell, and I had to do up to 60 interviews a day.”
Jake Lloyd will be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008 after abandoning his studies and will experience setbacks with the law, arrested for speeding in 2015, incarcerated then placed for a time in a psychiatric establishment.
This year, The Phantom Menace celebrates its 25th anniversary. On that occasion, his mother, Lisa, spoke to Scripps News (via Variety) last March about her son’s mental health issues, denying the theory that negative reactions to the film and criticism of his performance were the reason why Jake stopped acting.
“People say he quit because of Star Wars. Well that’s not true”, she said. “It had nothing to do with Star Wars. It had more to do with our family. And we were getting divorced. Things were unstable and quite difficult. And Jake didn’t seem to be having much fun auditioning anymore. He loved filming Star Wars. He had so much fun.”
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She added: “I protected him from negative reactions. He was riding his bike outside and playing with his friends. He did not know it. He didn’t care. Everyone makes a big deal out of it. And it’s kind of annoying to me because Jake was a little kid when this came out, and he didn’t really feel any of that because I didn’t let him go online.”
Regarding her diagnosis of schizophrenia, she stated that “this would have happened anyway”: “I believe it was genetic. And his psychiatrist also agrees that Jake was going to become schizophrenic.”
35 years and a passion for Star Wars
Jake Lloyd celebrated its 35th anniversary on March 5. After suffering from depression last year, he is now in the 11th month of an 18-month stay in a rehabilitation center.
“He’s doing much better than I expected.”, said Lisa. “He has better relationships with people and is becoming a little more social, which is really nice. It’s a bit like finding old Jake, because he was always incredibly social until he became schizophrenic.”
Mother and son even celebrated the latter’s birthday by going to the cinema to see Wonka: “He really loved it. That was one of the things we couldn’t do when he was off his medication: watch movies. He just didn’t have the attention span.”
She added that Jake was also a fan of the Star Wars series, Ahsoka. “He loves all the new Star Wars stuff. People think Jake hates Star Wars. He loves it.”
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the rest of the prelogy and the entire Star Wars saga can be rediscovered in streaming on Disney+.