Speaking with the New York Times, actor Ahmed Best looks back at his time as the initially awkward and later pivotal Gungan Jar Jar Binks, a period of his career that was instantly life-changing but which also took a huge toll on him personally.
“It took almost a mortal toll on me. It was too much. It was the first time in my life where I couldn’t see the future. I didn’t see any hope. Here I was at 26 years old, living my dream, and my dream was over.
Ahmed also touched on the subject of Jar Jar – and other Phantom characters – accents.
“Everybody talks about Jar Jar’s accent. I read exactly what George wrote. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t an accent.
Back in the day, Chewbacca was seen as the Black character, and then Yoda was ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. Then the Neimoidians were ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. ‘Star Wars’ has had a history of being a lightning rod. That’s because it’s so successful.”
Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith stepped back from featuring Jar Jar as a lead character, relegating his appearances to cameos (however pivotal they may be in Sith especially) and that had an impact on Best.
“As an artist you want the respect from your peers, and I felt as if I was being scaled back because I didn’t do a good job. It really hurt. Everybody was running away from me, including the people that I gave two years of my life to.”
Thankfully, for the saga and the smart (and far, far larger) percentage of the fandom who very much appreciated his contribution and efforts Ahmed did indeed return to the GFFA, and along with the long-overdue gratitude of the fandom he also felt something he might not have expected to just a few years before.
“This is going to sound really corny, please forgive me, but it felt like coming home.”
