Liam Neeson 'Very Proud' of The Phantom Menace, Blames Criticism for Hurting Jar Jar Actor's Career

[Dead2009]

https://www.ign.com/articles/liam-n...s-criticism-for-hurting-jar-jar-actors-career
Liam Neeson is proud of his work in Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and believes the film's criticism hurt the career of Ahmed Best.

Neeson and Best worked alongside each other in the first of three Star Wars prequel movies as Qui-Gon Jin and Jar Jar Binks. The former is considered quite beloved by fans, even those who don't necessarily like The Phantom Menace, but the latter receives a lot of hate. Jar Jar Binks was meant to be a comedic relief of sorts to a not-so-funny movie but many found that this didn't work.

"I know a lot of fans and critics didn't like it and my lovely friend Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks, came in for a lot, a lot of criticism," Neeson told Andy Cohen on Cohen's Sirius XM radio show, as originally reported by IndieWire. "To the point where it really hurt his career, and I have to say when I was making that film, he was probably one of the funniest guys and talented guys I have ever worked with."

"Truly, he is one of the funniest guys," Neeson continued. "He had all of us in stitches — including George Lucas, and then bam, the film comes out and he's attacked, personally attacked by fans and critics for whatever reasons."

Neeson said he recalls calling his old ex-agent and telling them, "I think I just worked with the new Eddie Murphy." Neeson said he still believes that.

The actor also told Cohen that he was "very proud" of the film, adding that he got to be a Jedi and was able to play with lightsabers and more, which is something he considers "terrific."

 

[BrianL]

I saw this earlier and I totally agree with Liam. First of all THe Phantom Menace is a great movie - it wasn't until the Internet created it that there was any backlash at all. Secondly, love or hate Jar Jar, there was no excuse for the harassment driected at Ahmed Best in the prequel era. The same is true for Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen, and even today with some of the bullying toward Kelly Marie Tran and Rian Johnson. Fans can be so mean and vitriolic and it's quite frankly uncalled for. I LOVE The Phantom Menace and I'm glad that there are lots of more vocal fans that express love for the Prequels now. The same will be true of the Sequels once the fury dies down.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I dunno - I thought the Phantom Menace was a masterpiece compared to Attack of the Clones. And admit it - the Gungan's scene in Star Tours is THE best one. I always root for getting that one every time I ride.

 

[dumbodrop]

The Phantom Menace is Citizen Kane compared to the last 3 Star Wars films

 

[BrianL]

I dunno - I thought the Phantom Menace was a masterpiece compared to Attack of the Clones. And admit it - the Gungan's scene in Star Tours is THE best one. I always root for getting that one every time I ride.

I can see that. Attack is the weakest of the Prequels. I still like it though. I pretty much rank ANY Star Wars movie above all others, so that's like my top 11, ha ha. Maybe not exactly, but something like that. I love Episode I to an unreasonable degree.

 

[batuuboba]

I mean, if you're gonna hate on anyone in this situation, hate on the screenwriters and all the people that looked at the idea of a character using slang like that and said it was a good one. The number of people that have to approve that in a movie are quite a few and it always astounds me how they can look at that and say, 'oh yeah, this will totally fly in a blockbuster movie' and while I'm nutshelling, there's a similar case in the Mulan remake with shooting the film in Xinjiang. But blaming Ahmed Best for doing the role he was paid to do is pretty rude actually. You might as well then criticize every actor that takes on a risque role while trying to make a buck. I'd like to see Best in another role so I could look at his acting without my bias against JarJar. Yeah, the hate on the actors (same thing with KM Tran and Hayden Christensen) is wholly uncalled for. Whether you like the Gungans or not shouldn't decide whether or not you like the actor.

 

[BrianL]

I mean, if you're gonna hate on anyone in this situation, hate on the screenwriters and all the people that looked at the idea of a character using slang like that and said it was a good one. The number of people that have to approve that in a movie are quite a few and it always astounds me how they can look at that and say, 'oh yeah, this will totally fly in a blockbuster movie' and while I'm nutshelling, there's a similar case in the Mulan remake with shooting the film in Xinjiang. But blaming Ahmed Best for doing the role he was paid to do is pretty rude actually. You might as well then criticize every actor that takes on a risque role while trying to make a buck. I'd like to see Best in another role so I could look at his acting without my bias against JarJar. Yeah, the hate on the actors (same thing with KM Tran and Hayden Christensen) is wholly uncalled for. Whether you like the Gungans or not shouldn't decide whether or not you like the actor.

While I don't have any problems with the Jar Jar character at all, just a note that in this case the number of people who needed to approve anything for The Phantom Menace was one: George Lucas. The prequels were largely self-financed with Lucas retaining 100% creative control - essentially they were independent films made outside of the studio system, with Fox only having distribuion rights. It seems weird, but when you have the bucks that George Lucas does, and indie movie looks like a blockbuster!

 

[batuuboba]

While I don't have any problems with the Jar Jar character at all, just a note that in this case the number of people who needed to approve anything for The Phantom Menace was one: George Lucas. The prequels were largely self-financed with Lucas retaining 100% creative control - essentially they were independent films made outside of the studio system, with Fox only having distribuion rights. It seems weird, but when you have the bucks that George Lucas does, and indie movie looks like a blockbuster!

Thanks for fact-checking this for me! The creative rights of movie series like Star Wars are always confusing for me. I don't have a problem with the Gungans but I feel like the comic timing was meh at best. I do like the ST scene with them and would probably like JarJar more if he was better written like he was in CW (all of this in my opinion). But previous case still in point, Best still should not have been harassed like he was.

 

[BrianL]

Thanks for fact-checking this for me! The creative rights of movie series like Star Wars are always confusing for me. I don't have a problem with the Gungans but I feel like the comic timing was meh at best. I do like the ST scene with them and would probably like JarJar more if he was better written like he was in CW (all of this in my opinion). But previous case still in point, Best still should not have been harassed like he was.

Oh, certianly. Basiacally, after Fox interfered a little with the first Star Wars movie and GL became a billionnaire overnight from it's success, all of the follow-ups were at his discretion. He didn't take studio money so he didn't have to take studio notes. So, it's on him, for good or ill, though I still go with mostly good. The sequel trilogy was very much made in the studio system, in the biggest way possible. That doesn't necessarily make them bad, but it definitely reflects the "many stamps of approval" process that you were talking about.

 

[Bill007]

What about poor Jake Lloyd? His life was pretty much ruined after all the negative feedback. I thought he was fine in the part of Anakin and it was nice to see a kid in on the action. What I didn't like is in the next two films how they turned Anakin into a spoiled and whiny young man and practically ruined the character of Darth Vader.

 

[BrianL]

What about poor Jake Lloyd? His life was pretty much ruined after all the negative feedback. I thought he was fine in the part of Anakin and it was nice to see a kid in on the action. What I didn't like is in the next two films how they turned Anakin into a spoiled and whiny young man and practically ruined the character of Darth Vader.

Oh, man, Jake Lloyd! I swear the people criticzing him had just never been around kids - that's just how they act. Honestly, young Anakin reminds me so much of me as a kid, the way he'd "talk down," like lowering his voice toward the end of a sentence - I totally did that. Sure, he's excitable, presumptive, and can be annoying sometimes - but that's kids, right? Also, kid totally had game: "Are you an angel?" Dang.

 

[chickapin parterre]

. He didn't take studio money so he didn't have to take studio notes.

 

[RamblingMad]

I didn't much care for Jar Jar. If there was a cut of this movie without him, I'd buy it. I saw it when it originally aired on opening night. Loved Darth Maul. Didn't care for the creepy kid romance or Jar Jar.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Makes me really sad to think the actor took heat for Jar Jar, there is nothing anyone could have done to save the character as it was at the time.

I recently read that Jake Lloyd was bullied over his role as young Anakin which is astonishing since that kid was just adorable. I get so upset hearing about child actors who struggle as they get older since they really had no agency when they were pulled into the machine.... it's messed up.

Personally, I rarely blame actors or actresses for the outcome when they have so little influence over the final result. When all this went down it was just the age of the trolls.