Allowing us an insight into the difficult life of young Anakin Skywalker actor Jake Lloyd, his mother Lisa explains the challenges the star of The Phantom Menace has tackled over recent years, a journey that rings a hopeful note as his understanding of his condition continues to evolve as he reaches 10 months of an 18 month stay at a mental health rehabilitation facility.
Here, Lisa explains where Jake stands with Star Wars, and far from hating the series as many assume, he is enjoying the current crop of content.
Lisa is also eager to dispel what she says is a common misconception: that an avalanche of negative reaction to “The Phantom Menace” drove Jake to quit acting and contributed to his mental illness.
“It would have happened anyway,” Lisa insists, pointing to a history of schizophrenia on his biological father’s side of the family. “I believe that it was genetic. And his psychiatrist also agrees that Jake was going to become schizophrenic.”
She also insists that in 1999, Jake was largely shielded from the toxic vitriol swirling around the prequel film.
“I protected him from the backlash. He was just riding his bike outside, playing with his friends. He didn’t know. He didn’t care,” Lisa said. “Everybody makes such a big deal about that. And it’s rather annoying to me because Jake was a little kid when that came out, and he didn’t really feel all that stuff because I didn’t let him online.”
Lisa acknowledges that high school kids would sometimes bully Jake over “Star Wars,” something he mentioned in past interviews. But she says walking away from Hollywood had more to do with family drama at home.
“People say he quit because of ‘Star Wars.’ Well, that’s not true. It didn’t have anything to do with ‘Star Wars.’ It had more to do with our family. And we were going through a divorce,” Lisa explained. “Things were unsettled and kind of rough. And Jake didn’t seem to be having a lot of fun auditioning anymore.”
Lisa said Jake still likes wearing “Star Wars” T-shirts and sometimes gets recognized in public. When asked if she sees Jake one day starring in another “Star Wars” project, Lisa said it’s not something that’s in the cards.
“Jake loved filming ‘Star Wars.’ He had so much fun,” she recalled. “I would love for him to get well enough to be able to do a little bit of something, and I’m sure he would maybe like to do that. He couldn’t at this point, but you never know how much he’s going to improve. So we’ll see.”
Be sure to read the full piece, and the team here at Fantha would like to pass on their best wishes to Jake and family.
