The Real Reason Star Wars Actor Jake Lloyd Quit Acting
Warning: This article deals with heavy topics related to mental illness.
Let me speak plainly: I'm not going to try and convince you the "Star Wars" prequels are great, actually. They're fascinating in their political prescience — although, for as much as "Star Wars" has always been a fierce rebuke of fascism and imperialism, George Lucas had admitted the parallels between Palpatine's rise to power and the War on Terror were not intentional — and it's hard not to (somewhat begrudgingly) admire Lucas for making the films he wanted to see. That's especially true when it comes to "Episode I — The Phantom Menace," a profoundly flawed movie that represents the purest version of what the storyteller had in mind with these films, for better and for worse.
25 years later, though, "The Phantom Menace" is still a strangely affectless, stilted picture full of interesting ideas but clunky execution (along with some plain ol' bad stuff, too). That does not, however, mean that "Star Wars" fans were in any way justified in tearing the film's cast and crew apart psychologically the way they did. Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd notoriously took the brunt of the abuse for their respective performances as Jar Jar Binks and a young Anakin Skywalker, to the degree that it left Best in a deep depression and, at his darkest point, even contemplating suicide. Meanwhile, Lloyd endured nearly as much abuse from the anonymous online masses for committing the apparently unforgivable crime of giving a not-so-fantastic kid performance in a movie full of questionable acting.
Because of this, the narrative has long been that Lloyd quit acting over the backlash to "The Phantom Menace" ... except, according to his family, that's not at all what happened.
Lloyd didn't think he was sick
Kid actors tend to lead short careers and very few make the transition to acting as adults. At worst, they end up being chewed up and spit out by Hollywood when they're no longer deemed useful (like what happened to Bobby Driscoll, who voiced Peter Pan in Disney's 1953 animated feature). Other times, they just decide to pursue a different career, grow tired of the acting grind, or step away for other reasons. Speaking with Scripps News, Jake Lloyd's mother, Lisa Lloyd, explained that it was a combination of her son's poor mental health and other factors that led to him quitting acting after starring in "The Phantom Menace" and the '90s Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas comedy "Jingle All the Way."
Lisa Lloyd, who assured that she's speaking out with her son's knowledge, revealed that Jake Lloyd was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after years of mental health problems when he was growing up. Further complicating matters, Jake Lloyd has anosognosia, which refers to a condition where "someone is unaware of their own mental health condition or that they can't perceive their condition accurately" (per the National Alliance on Mental Illness). "He didn't think he needed to take medication because he wasn't sick," Lisa Lloyd elaborated. "He didn't think he needed to go to the therapist because there's nothing wrong with him."
This contributed to Jake Lloyd's poor mental health in the years that followed, resulting in him being arrested on multiple charges after leading police on a car chase in 2015. Three years later, his younger sister Madison abruptly died in her sleep at the of age 26. "He just couldn't handle it. He didn't know how to process it," Lisa Lloyd recalled. "Sometimes he would just start saying that he really missed Madison. That's about as much of a conversation as we'd have about it. At least he was acknowledging it."
'People think Jake hates Star Wars. He loves it'
Finally, in March 2023, Jake Lloyd had what Lisa Lloyd described to Scripps News as "a full-blown psychotic break." Thankfully, he was admitted to a hospital the day after and is currently 10 months into an 18-month stay at a mental health rehabilitation center. "He's doing much better than I expected," Lisa Lloyd clarified. "He is relating to people better and becoming a little bit more social, which is really nice. It's kind of like having more of the old Jake back because he has always been incredibly social until he became schizophrenic."
Continuing, Lisa Lloyd said her son has recently watched the "Ahsoka" series on Disney+. "He loves all the new 'Star Wars' stuff. People think Jake hates 'Star Wars.' He loves it," she noted, stating that Jake Lloyd would've undoubtedly quit acting no matter what due to his mental illness. "I believe that it was genetic [on his father's side]. And his psychiatrist also agrees that Jake was going to become schizophrenic," she added.
Lisa Lloyd also cited her divorce from Jake Lloyd's biological father as a factor in his quitting: "Things were unsettled and kind of rough. And Jake didn't seem to be having a lot of fun auditioning anymore." She added that her son managed to avoid the bulk of abuse thrown his way over "The Phantom Menace" because she kept him offline as much as possible when he was a kid (although he did experience some bullying in the real world, as Jake Lloyd himself has mentioned in previous interviews).
Personally, I'm just happy to hear that Jake Lloyd is receiving the treatment he needs and is doing much better. That's more important than any movie will ever be, "Star Wars" or otherwise.