• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mark Hamill defends the Star Wars prequels, angry with about how Jake Lloyd was treat

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
http://www.nme.com/news/film/mark-hamill-defends-star-wars-prequel-trilogy-1965015

Mark Hamill has defended the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

The star, who plays Luke Skywalker in the original films and the current trilogy, said the public overreacted over the films.

”I couldn't believe some of the things they [Star Wars fans] wrote about the prequels, you know. I mean really beyond, ‘I didn't like it', ‘you ruined my childhood...'," Hamill said.

He continued: ”I'm still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only 10 years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George [Lucas] wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialogue."

Lloyd, who played Anakin Skywalker as a boy in The Phantom Menace, said in a 2012 interview that it made his childhood a ”living hell".
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, Hamill also revealed that he turned down the chance to take part in the anti-George Lucas documentary The People vs George Lucas.

He told Vulture: ”They weren't calling it [that] at the time. But I could tell from the questions they were asking me that it was an open invitation to trash George. And I have issues with George, but I love that man. I would never talk outside the family."
Click to expand...

Kudos to Hamill on defending the prequels, and Lucas which get way too much hate from internet fanboys. And even if you don't like the prequels, you can't defend the horrible treatment Jake Lloyd has gotten.

EDIT:

Here's the video of Hamill:

https://www.facebook.com/Vulture/videos/1433213813364827/
 
B

brandonh83

Banned
I'm not sure he's actually defending the movies but rather commenting on some of the hyperbole surrounding them. It's not really the same thing.
 
T

tuxfool

Banned
I'm not aware what is happening to Jake Lloyd, but it is ridiculous that people hold him responsible. He was a better actor than Hayden Christiansen.
 
S

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
My boss is friends with Jake Lloyd from working cons with him. He always laments how shitty that kid was treated. He had some pretty public mental issues recently and people were still mocking him.
 
A

AndersK

Member
lazygecko said:
Who are "they"? The fans? Was there really that much vitriol directed at Lloyd personally?
Click to expand...

Lloyd became the scapegoat for manchildren voicing their extreme dislike of the prequel(s). (Not that disliking them makes you that - just the ones that took it to that level). Poor guy ended up with psychological problems and would be harassed/made fun of at conventions. All for doing what Lucas told him to do. some interview with Lloyd from back then just make me feel...bad.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
brandonh83 said:
I'm not sure he's actually defending the movies but rather commenting on some of the hyperbole surrounding them. It's not really the same thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Basically, don't act like they're an affront to humanity, don't crank the anti-George vitriol up to 11, and don't make child actor's lives hell. Which is a little different.
 
D

dc89

Member
Because of the way George Lucas acted whoever played Anakin was on a hiding to nothing.
That doesn't excuse the behaviour of certain fans, poor Jake Lloyd was given an impossible task.
 
P

PixelatedBookake

Junior Member
I didn't see the prequels when they came out but I'm familiar with the backlash they. I knew people didn't like Jake Lloyd's Anakin and god knows I didn't, but to direct hatred towards him for playing a character that doesn't exist? How fucked up is that?
 
S

Secret Fawful

Member
Can't wait for the Red Letter Media video responding to Hamill's comments by shitting on Jake Lloyd for the whole video for daring to stand up for George Lucas.

Good on Mark for standing up for the kid. Disliking the movies or the acting doesn't give carte blanche to wish the people involved were dead or any of the other hyperbolic shittiness that Star Wars fans have said about people like Lloyd and Lucas.
 
Strangelove77

Strangelove77

Member
I don't think we'll ever see nerd rage of that intensity again. It was incredible how much nerds were pissed.
"Raped my childhood" wasn't said in a cutesy half jokingly way back then, they were really that upset about it that they felt like the prequels(mostly The Phantom Menace) damaged them and their childhood memories to such a degree that it could only be equated to full-on rape.

What a time to be alive.
 
F

ffejeromdiks

Banned
The people vs George Lucas wasn't an anti-george lucas documentary, if anything it had a positive message towards the man that created such a phenomenon.
 
M

MechaX

Member
I can't say I would defend the prequels, but I do 100% agree that Jake Lloyd got a really fucking bad deal.

Dude pretty much did exactly what Lucas wanted him to do in takes. Hell, Hayden Christiansen had the same issue; Lucas would pull him to the side and be like "no, do it again like this" and that's how we got Creeper Anakin in EPII and III.
 
C

CaviarMeths

Member
We all should be angry at how Jake Lloyd was treated. Angry nerds were a mistake. Nothing but trash.

And the prequels are still trash, but Mark's right there too. The whole "ruined my childhood" nonsense was ridiculous. Anyone who said dumb shit like that should stop what they're doing and call their mother right now and apologize for being such a disappointment.
 
B

brandonh83

Banned
Einchy said:
Not only did fans treat him like shit but people bullied him at school for it.
Click to expand...

Imagine being a kid, landing a role like that, but getting shitty direction and dialogue to work with and having to live in that kind of environment rather than what should've been a celebratory one. I don't even think he's that bad, hell I thought he was mostly okay for his age when they filmed it apart from the stupid things Lucas gave him to say. Which I don't blame Jake for.

Also got to meet him back in 2005 and he was incredibly nice and talked to me a lot more than most of the other people I was meeting. He didn't deserve any of this shit.
 
S

Surfinn

Member
Mark, as usual, is right.

I feel terrible for Lloyd. He did nothing wrong and people shame him for shit completely out of his control.

And for those asking, yes, he got a TON of shit over the years. I've seen videos of people "interviewing" him, only to directly insult and embarrass him on camera.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
I don't remember any of my friends talking shit about Lloyd. Most of it was directed towards Jar-Jar and the voice actor. It's sad that Lloyd got harassed though; it's not his fault that fans were expecting something in the tone of Rogue One and instead got a movie made for kids.

Hayden Christiansen got the lion's share of (well-deserved) prequel criticism in my circle.
 
E

EatinOlives

Member
Doesn't sound like he was "defending" the prequels so much as he was calling out the hyperbolic "RUINED MAH CHILDHOOD!11!!!1" bullshit, which IS bullshit.

And yes, Lloyd was treated like absolute garbage through no fault of his own. He was a kid, it wasn't his fault at all that the script and dialogue were poorly written. Even great actors can look like hot garbage if the writing and/or directing is bad. It's really sad to know things didn't end well for Lloyd either, again through no real fault of his own.
 
N

Nodnol

Member
However the prequels might have failed to live up to expectation, or whatever missteps and mistakes they made, to hound a child is just perplexing. By all means be disappointed, maybe even angry, but I just can't comprehend the mindset needed to justify that sort of behaviour, and to aim it towards a child? Perplexing.
 
K

Kyne

Member
sucks, especially given the path that Jake ended up going down..

lloyd11f-1-web.jpg
Click to expand...

Star Wars’ actor Jake Lloyd moved to psychiatric facility after spending nearly 10 months in jail.
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
He's absolutely right.

I feel really, really sorry for Jake Lloyd. He's seemed like an absolute wreck in interviews. He really didn't deserve the bullying that followed after him, and still does follow him, in all likelihood.

People often seem to believe that he bore the responsibility for lines like "Yipee!" coming out of his mouth. He was an extraordinarily young child having to act out one of the most infamously clunky scripts of all time. With that in mind, I thought he did a fine job. His performance never bothered me in the slightest.
 
A

AndrewDean84xX

Banned
I never blamed Lloyd or Christianson for their portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. They did their jobs, and it was approved by their higher ups. George is the one that should be confronted, but even then, chill the fuck out. They're movies.
 
K

KeyBladerXIII

Member
Strangelove77 said:
I don't think we'll ever see nerd rage of that intensity again. It was incredible how much nerds were pissed.
"Raped my childhood" wasn't said in a cutesy half jokingly way back then, they were really that upset about it that they felt like the prequels(mostly The Phantom Menace) damaged them and their childhood memories to such a degree that it could only be equated to full-on rape.

What a time to be alive.
Click to expand...

Prequel haters can be some of the most hyperbolic babies you can find. I've read comments from people who practically went into conniptions over Rogue One 'daring' to bring Jimmy Smits back or fucking podracer flags hung over Maz Kanata's castle that you might see for half a second.

I greatly enjoy seeing even the smallest callback to the PT, knowing it's causing them to froth at the mouth.
 
G

Garlador

Member
The prequels are garbage... but I was really upset at how some fans went after a 10 year old kid like they did.

"Now THIS is podracing!" "Are you an angel? I've heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They live on the moons of Iego, I think. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe."

Even Anthony Hopkins or Patrick Stewart couldn't make dialogue like that work, let alone a 10 year old kid who gave exactly the performance George wanted him to give.

It's like saying Samuel L. Jackson is a bad actor just because Lucas did the impossible task of draining "motherf***ing" Samuel L. Jackson of all his boisterous energy and boundless charisma.
samuel-l-jackson.jpg

still-of-samuel-l.-jackson-in-star-wars:-episod-i-det-m%C3%B6rka-hotet-(1999)-large-picture.jpg
Click to expand...

I have plenty of issues with George Lucas. I really do. I don't despise the Special Editions; I despise his insistence that those be the ONLY versions anyone should see. I don't hate Jake Lloyd; I hate the way Lucas wrote and directed him. I even see so much potential in the prequels Lucas just squandered, but was later salvaged by more capable creators.
Star-Wars-Animated-Series-Clone-Wars-Rebels-Best-Episodes.jpg
Click to expand...

But they didn't "ruin" my childhood. Yes, I dislike them. Passionately. But I know they're just movies.
 
A

a916

Member
I’m still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only 10 years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George [Lucas] wanted him to do
Click to expand...

Yeah, fans should definitely be ashamed of making fun of the 10 year old actor. I agree with Mark on that. It's wrong on so many levels.
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
I'm with the Hamster here, the vitriol around the prequels was really distasteful. This is coming from someone who was young enough at the time to get unnecessarily outraged myself.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

ITT we rank the Star Wars Movies
2
68
4K
VenomousCoffee replied
Mark Hamill Says ‘Star Wars’ Prequels ‘Impressed’ Him: ‘They Had Their Own Identity’
2
51
3K
DeepEnigma replied
Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars movie fast-tracked, stand-alone set after the ST (but ST characters may appear)
2
79
4K
Darkmakaimura replied
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3 4 5
207
16K
oji-san replied
‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Slams Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams: ‘They Don’t Have a Clue’
Drama 2 3 4
179
14K
Panajev2001a replied
Top Bottom