PT Jake Lloyd Appreciation

Last I heard the actor Jake Lloyd hit a rough patch. The amount of ignorant and misinformed crap thrown his way still bothers me to this day. I feel bad for him because I'm human, but his treatment irritates me because it was so misplaced.

I'm not sure if it's been done before but I wanted to post this thread just to say I thought he was great as a young Anakin. I thought he nailed the part and gave us exactly what we needed in an innocent and caring boy.

My personal favorite scene with him is when he is screaming about his pod racer working. It's pure bliss.

 

I wish Jake well but he was miscast as Anakin. I blame Lucas for that.

 

I love it when people say stuff like this. Thank you for also not throwing a shot at Lucas, which is what some unfortunately seem to do if they compliment Jake/Hayden

 

That was definitely the most genuine part of his role when he is yelling "It's working, it's working!" It's a really special moment and you can tell he is a special kid and different from the others....
oh and this Image is absolutely fantastic:

 

The hate for Jake Llyod is sad and way overblown. I think he did a fine job in his role as nine year old Anakin Skywalker. Is he annoying? I guess so if you find kids in general annoying, but to me Llyod was very genuine for his role. I'm quite happy how we see who Darth Vader used to be when he was a kid: just a normal boy who cared for others before himself.

I've always seen people claim the OT is better because Luke is a relatable protagonist and the prequels offered nothing of the kind. I could not disagree more because when I was a kid I related to Anakin a lot more than I ever did to Luke and I think Llyod was a big reason because of that.

I've also seen people claim Llyod hates Star Wars because of his rold in TPM, but a few years ago he used to have streams for fans of him and his friends playing The Old Republic. Unfortunately due to his schizophrenia he has been a lot less active and is probably trying to work out his own life issues.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Llyod is featured on what is probably the greatest teaser poster of all-time.

 

He gives a relatively unvarnished performance.

Along with Jar Jar, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Padme, Anakin is the innocent of TPM -- and the innocence.

Not to say that Anakin doesn't have some darkness within him. He's not a caricature. And Jake, in my opinion, conveys those aspects well.

From shuddering on the queen's ship, to asserting himself at the dinner table, to scowling at Jar Jar and stoically piloting his podracer to ultimate victory, through to sorrowfully parting with his mother, impertinently questioning and glaring at members of the Jedi Council, to freaking out in battle and ushering a self-satisfied war cry after he blows up the Trade Federation droid control ship, to that awkward half-smile at the victory parade, Anakin shows quite a subtle range of emotions in the film, and I've always found Jake Lloyd up to the task.

Plus, in places, the kid is plain funny. "I actually saved the pod -- mostly."

I, for one, think the right blend of characteristics was captured in TPM Anakin (in all the Anakins), from the alchemy of Lucas' pencil and the direction, editing, and raw, unreconstructed performance of Jake Lloyd himself.

And yes, that teaser poster could be the greatest teaser poster of all time.

Star Wars at a poetic peak.

 

I rather liked Jake as Young Anakin. He was quite adorable (a bit annoying but that's my opinion on a lot of kids) and I think that made it even harder to deal with him joining the Dark Side in the end. The whole "crush" thing had me cracking up but ya know, boys will be boys. I feel bad for Jake. He couldn't go anywhere without people saying something about Star Wars. And besides, he may not actually be a bad actor, George may have told him to do all the things that people judge him for...

 

Any child would have been a miscast. Fans didn't wanted Lil Vader in the first place.

Llyod was a much better actor in visual performance and body language. This matches well with Hayden also.

While the other kid was a better actor, Llyod was much more natural with his acting.

 

My take.

 

I think Haley Joel Osment would have been much better but Lucas didn't want to use him because he was "well known":



It was a mistake not using a top notch kid actor.

 

Yeah, I agree. The other children were better actors. But Llyod had Natural attuned acting. He had body language. His acting was Raw. None of those kids even Joel had it. They were pros. It's the same with Hayden.

I think it was best not to use Joel. Too many known actors in one movie can be a bit much.

 

No offense to Jake but I thought he was a terrible actor.

 

That's fine with me dawg. It's pretty understandable, so I don't blame you whole heatedly.

 

People do not hate Lloyd, but a Lucas' choice.

When I was a child, i enjoyed jingle All the Way (with him and Arnold Schwartznegger) and TPM.

 

Honestly, I didnt think anything about Jake Lloyd's acting until people started an uproar about it online. I didnt think it was spectacular but I didnt think it was terrible to the point it ruined the movie. I thought he did a fine job. And I wouldnt have how GL made the prequels any other way. For years I loved how he made them and the decisions he made until I started to notice the hate simmer all over the internet(not just on these boards)....Jake Lloyd, the majority of Star Wars fans have no problem with you.

 

I always liked Jake's performance as Anakin in TPM, I see nothing wrong with it even to this day. I will NEVER understand the insane levels of pure nerd rage and hatred for the performance of a 9 year old boy, HE WAS A 9 YEAR OLD, FFS. And yet, he did a damn fine job. I don't understand why anyone would expect some Oscar level performance from a kid, even though he playes a character who eventually becomes Darth Vader. He was just supposed to be a nice, innocent, caring, technologically savvy kid who could do awesome things for a kid of his age and he pulled that off perfectly. And as Cryogenic stated, he even managed to pull off the subtler things the audience wouldn't even know to expect.

What really infuriates me is how ridiculously mean people were to a goddamn kid and how all that bullying and hatred pretty much destroyed his childhood and made him what he is today. How can ANYONE do that to a kid? Especially the older fans who grew up with the OT. I get it, they hated TPM and they hated Kid Vader, but couldn't they just blame it on Lucas or on anyone else but a poor, defenseless and innocent child? What is wrong with people in this world, sometimes it really baffles me.

 

The truly sad part is the possessive nature of many OT fans who believe "their childhood was ruined" or that the PT ruined "THEIR" Star Wars. It never belonged to them and yet they feel the entitlement to attack the man who actually owned and created the property. It's entitlement unbound.

And anyone who thinks a film ruined their childhood has a very sad life to begin with. I love Star Wars, but it didn't define any aspect of my childhood.

 

I mean just look at this happy kid on the set of TPM, just look at him.



And look at his latest pictures. People can be truly horrible for no real reason. I feel really bad for this guy.

 

So true, and even though I will proudly say that Star Wars did define a lot of great memories in my childhood and made me the sci-fi fanatic I am today, no future movie, be it Episode 7 or the upcoming 8 and 9, if horrible, could ever take that away from me. It wouldn't have ruined my childhood since my childhood is gone, it's past tense and whatever happened then was good and can never change. I can't understand it when people use that phrase, it seems so despicably immature and attention seeking.

 

There were a lot of things I complained about in TPM's early days; as I've grown and watched it through less judgmental (read: 'Get off my lawn if you're not the OT) eyes, I realize that I've never seen him or his talents as an issue; as per my typical criticism with the PT, it was always the usual suspect - awkward bits of dialogue (the "Are you an Angel?" exchange and the droid ship absurdity are the two that comes to mind). But acting wise, I think other(s) in the film sold their roles in a far worse fashion than Jake.

As always, IMHO.

 

Exactly. Haley Joel Osment's performances -- as technically brilliant as they are -- come freighted with a surreal, adult knowingness that would have been much too intense and out-of-place in Star Wars.

In fact, his face is rather like a haunted freight train.

IMO, anyway.

Well said.

"When the storm is over, I'll show you my racer. I'm building a podracer."

So much natural kid-innocence in that line and many others.

And juuuuuust a hint of un-Jedi-like pride and arrogance.

Pitch-perfect, you might say.

Sadly, there are many regressive elements in human society.

We are, all too often, ruled by our emotions, rather than becoming the masters of them.

"You're a slave?"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_Allegory

 

Which is exactly the way I think Anakin should have been portrayed.

He's a slave but a happy go lucky kid at the same time? Watto must be the nicest slave owner ever. I would have preferred that he was "damaged goods" from the start because of his slavery. Would have made his turn much more believable. I'll share how I think the prequels should have handled Anakin:

 

That would be interesting but how would they pull that scene off ? With anakin stopping right before he strikes Obi-Wan?(talking about the scene on Mustafar)

 

Vader/Anakin completely overpowers Obi-Wan during the fight. Obi-Wan is desperate and fighting for his life. In a swift blow Vader/Anakin knocks the lightsaber out of Obi-Wan's hand. It goes flying and Obi-Wan falls to the ground. Vader/Anakin raises his light saber up for the killing blow but pauses for a moment (the good in him, the conflict). While he pauses Obi-Wan in desperation force pulls his lightsaber and strikes. As Vader/Anakin slides down the hill Obi-Wan looks down and realizes what he has just done. How they are feeling could be done with musical queues. When Anakin pauses maybe play the Yoda force theme. Then when Obi-Wan hacks it's back to the duel music. Then tragic music as Obi-Wan realizes what he's done.

Anakin: *pauses realizing what he's doing...the good in him, the conflict*
Obi-Wan: *In total desperation force pulls the lightsaber and strikes*
Anakin: *begins sliding down the hill*
Obi-Wan: *realizes what he has done* "Anakin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" *reaches for Anakin's artificial arm as it is sliding but can't reach*
Anakin: "I hate you!" *catches on fire*

 

That would really be a fantastic ending. I thought the ending was great as it is but that would've been a nice take on it. For a split second, anakin would show regret but then after being cut up he would've been fully turned to hatred