JakeLloyd Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After the success (financial, anyway) of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace back in 1999, Jake Lloyd (young Anakin Skywalker) pretty much took a break from screen acting to do all that growing up.

Well, Sci-Fi Pi -- the SciFi Channel's blog Down Under, where it's not called SyFy; lucky them -- managed an interview with Lloyd at Australia's Supanova pop culture expo about starring in the prequel and his life in the decade after, and I found it to be a brief but telling look at how childhood stardom plays out today.

On the one hand, he's clearly grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of something so big, but on the other, it seems to be that one thing that his high school and college peers tend to harp on, to a clearly wearying extent. I certainly wouldn't begrudge him his current year-long hiatus from school if that's what he still has to put up with. What do you think about the interview?

Thanks to Drew over at Hitfix for pointing this out.

Poor Jake Lloyd. In April, I posted that the Phantom Menace star was going to headline Celebration IV, a big Star Wars Convention in Los Angeles starting this Thursday. Not any more! Well, not headlining that is. Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, has taken over the honor. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who is more intrigued by the event with her name on the roster. Lloyd's name isn't even mentioned in the special appearance highlights over at Deadline Hollywood Daily. He's really not getting an easy time as of late, is he? Hopefully we won't see him on Entertainment Tonight one of these days with an eating disorder or drug problem.

As for Ms. Fisher, she has been making quite a career out of guest spots. She's been a nun in both Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Charlie's Angels 3, and has recently lent her voice to Family Guy. This, of course, leaves her totally open to make fanboy and fangirl dreams come true. If you're looking to get face-to-face with Fisher, or even Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), both will be signing autographs and making stage appearances during the convention. It sounds like a pretty big event for the 30th Star Wars anniversary (the first was released on May 25, 1977). In the ultimate show of geek, the convention is kicking off with a 17-hour screening event -- Episode I through Episode VI -- which kicks off Wednesday, at 9 a.m. Those that are still lucid after seeing Anakin whine, Luke lust and Ewoks dance, will then see live entertainment, celebs from all the movies, presentations, props, exhibits, contests and just about anything else a fanatic could dream of. Well, except Fisher donning that famous outfit again. Methinks that's out of the question.

I kinda feel bad for little Jake Lloyd. Okay, he isn't quite so little any more -- he just turned 18 last month. But what has happened to the kid since starring as the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace? It has been almost 10 years, and Lloyd hasn't gotten much. He managed to star in an indie movie, Die with Me, and some flick called Madison. Beyond that, he's lent his voice to five Star Wars video games. That's it. People worry what will happen to the Harry Potter kids as they age, but at least they had a number of huge cinematic experiences to pull from. Poor Jake, he just has the one. (I am not going to count Jingle All the Way!)

Now, he's the big guest star for Celebration IV -- the big Star Wars fan convention. But this isn't the first. He was also there last year, for Celebration III. So, any fans who didn't get to ask him about his experiences last year have another shot. While maybe this would sweeten the Celebration for hard-core Star Wars fans, this news leaves me a little sad. Is this what the kid's life will be? Spending decades talking about a very short amount of time on a movie when he was almost too young to remember? I can see his future now -- at 40, he'll be attending these conventions, telling that funny anecdote about Ewan McGregor for the 100th time and signing autographs while people peer at pictures of him as a kid and try to see where the tot is inside this much older man. Maybe he'll get lucky and Kevin Smith will be ready by then to make another Jay and Silent Bob movie, and instead of coming up against Mark Hamill, they'll get Jake Lloyd.