PT All things about Jake Lloyd (Consolidated Thread)

I don't think Liam Neeson had cheesy lines And Jake had some good moments (primarily with his Mom and Qui-Gon). I think Shmi and Qui-Gon could have been good parent for lil' Ani

 

Any "professional" (and I use the term lightly) who's been proven to have acted in such a manner should be fired on the spot and word should be passed around Hollywood about their lack of a proper work ethic. No questions asked. No second chances. You're there to do a job, not to lob insults disguised as humor towards another member of the team.

Further, the idea that any adult would openly taunt a child like that, in my opinion, goes beyond unprofessional to just plain disgusting.

 

Mannequin Skywalker??? What the hell/heck does that even mean, in the first place, bro dude???

 

I'd imagine it was something to do with what they viewed as rather stiff acting?

 

a mannequin is a dummy usually in a clothes store to display clothing

 

If these were rules no Kurick movie would had ever been made and it would be a huge loss for humanity. People can gossip all they want i don't see why they should be fired for that.

 

Personally, I think actually doing one's job is a far better use of one's time, but sure, people are free gossip to their heart's content, as some poor folks are given to doing. That's not what anakinfan said, though. Her post said that members of the crew of Episode I taunted the actor on the set, calling him "Mannequin" and that Jake's mother found it pathetic that "adults would do that to an eight-year-old-boy." Not 'about' the kid, but 'to' him, if you take my meaning. I suppose one could read this as behind the actor's back gossip, but when someone openly taunts an actor and calls him names and these actions are described as being done to Lloyd, to me, this suggests face-to-face insults to a child. I'm sorry, but I have a very hard time defending these type of actions coming from "professionals" parading as "adults." I mean, it's just blatantly F'ed up to do that to the face of a child, isn't it?

edit: I can't speak to your point about Kubrick's films, though, as I'm not familiar with the production of his pictures, just the spectacular final results.

 

Yeah, but that's precisely what he fails at. I mean, the moment when Qui-Gon lifts him into the podracer or maybe down from the podracer (it's been a while) is a great example. He says something like, "Whoa" or something like that. But he says it in this horrible monotone voice. It doesn't sound at all like it would sound if a child had just spontaneously said "whoa" at being suddenly lifted up. It just sounds totally false and not at all like a real child. I wouldn't have minded if he'd come across like an actual nine year old. But he is like no nine year old I've ever been around. He's obviously uncomfortable and unnatural in front of the camera. He's a real nine year old, but he's so stilted in front of the camera that the performance isn't at all spontaneous. He has none of the natural energy of a nine year old.

 

I thought the "whoa" sounded natural...the most "off" was the "Qui-Gon, sir, what are midi-chlorians?" line.

I *thought* the Mannequin Anakin nickname was something bestowed by fans, not crew on the set...any confirmation on that?

 

At that point it's just Lucas coming out of the screen and explaining midi-chlorians to us.

 

^ Uh, yeah, but that was the "most off" line delivery by Jake. It was as fake as Obi-Wan's beard-stroking in ROTS ("He killed...younglings.")

 

Rogue-1 and a half:

1. then if the woah isn't natural enough isn't it the job of the director to say "Jake you need to be surprised"? it's what a director does, he directs actors

2. Anakin isn't exactly a normal child though is he? he might have the GFFA's version of Autism for all we know

3. then if he's unnatural in front ofthe camera, again, why not blame the guy who casted him,

you seem to putting all the blame on the preteen and not on the guy who put him there in front of that camera

all in all, Lloyd was one of the least of the problems with TPM, imo

 

He was one of the cruelest directors ever. And his films are just ****ed up nonsense. I too am no fan!

 

I thought Jake did a fine job as Anakin. Never did I think anything bad of his performance, and I was kinda surprised when I first heard of those opinions.
Thought Hayden did good as well. As has been said, both of them occasionally had a bad line or two, but nothing to make me go, "YOUR ACTING SUCKS!"

 

2001 is only the best science fiction film of all time.
The Shining is no slouch either...

 

I honestly don't know why JL was so criticized for his performance in TPM. I thought he did a great job, and IMHO was very convincing in the role. His kindness towards Qui-gon and the others when he took them to his home (to escape the sandstorm), his looking up to Jedi Knights, his cool-headed-ness during the podrace, and his sadness when leaving home & his mother seemed to me very genuine.

Also, IMHO the innocence of the character in TPM makes his turn to the dark-side in AOTC & ROTS all of the more poignant.

 

I didn't mind him at all. He was playing a highly noted role at the time (a young Darth Vader), and I'm sure people were carefully listening to his dialogue, which was written by Lucas.

 

Jake Lloyd confirmed on his facebook page when this came out that this article was fake.

 

Maybe he's trying to hide it or avoid his past?

 

No. He said that he was never interviewed by them at all.

If he were to openly say such that star wars ruined his life, then why would he attend various star wars fandom events?

 

Yeah, I know, I could see that. But then again, celebrities usually deny something that is related to them.

 

He does a good job as a child actor. Nothing revelatory-- maybe there was a little more scrutiny here because Haley Joel Osment nearly got the role, and just wowed people for his turn in "The Sixth Sense". At the very least, I prefer JL to what we might've gotten if Macauley Culkin played the part...

 

I liked Jake Lloyd in the role too. He just had a sense of innocence about him which was fairly heartbreaking when you know the full story of the character.

 

Good point. However, IMHO JL was spot-on in his role as Young Anakin in TPM. Sure, another child actor may have played the part differently but I don't necessarily think it would have been a superior performance.

We'll never know how well HJO would have done if he got the role of Anakin in TPM. And, it's extremely difficult to compare The Sixth Sense to Episode 1 - though I thought both films were excellent, they were extremely different. JL was much more exuberant in his role as Anakin than HJO was in his role as the reserved, haunted child in TSS; IMHO, both acting styles were appropriate for these respective films.

Side-note: Though everyone probably knows that JL was in the AS comedy Jingle all the Way, several years back I finally saw the mid-90's episodes of ER with a very young JL - he played the character of a young homeless child whose mother Dr. Green (A. Edwards) was trying to help. Interesting, since if I hadn't seen TPM I would never have recognized him.