STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + ep3?

[ReadyAndWilling]

hi all, so i was thinking about this earlier. i did a google search and some star wars fans think he would have made a better anakin in episodes 2 and 3. i'm not sure how this could have been achieved. i guess lucas could have waited a few more years and cast lloyd in eps 2 and 3. or, lucas could have cast lloyd later in his career in ep 1 - so he'd be 13 or 14 and then make eps 2 and 3 at the same time so the age discrepancy wouldn't have been so great between the movies.

i found this video interview lloyd did and it's fairly recent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtkM2JPcHPo

what do you guys think? could he have pulled off a better anakin?

would he have made a better face of the franchise than christensen?

 

[Klaus]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Not if he was still written the same and had to try to speak the same dialogue...

 

[Shazam!]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

He couldn't even play Anakin in Episode 1.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

No.

He and Hayden Christensen deserve to be blacklisted for what they did.

 

[DarKush]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

No.

 

[davejames]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

The character may have been written completely wrong, and given some truly awful dialogue to say, but I wouldn't lay that on Christensen.

Lucas wanted Anakin to be a petulant, immature dick, and that's exactly what Christensen gave him.

He was certainly a better actor than Lloyd, in any case.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Of course. But then, to be fair, so could a cardboard cut-out.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

The prequels sucked.

There, this discussion has run its course. We can now close the thread.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Christensen has been in other movies where he's not half bad. He sucked in Star Wars because the Star Wars prequels sucked. Once you get past premium actors, set and costume design, and special effects, Star Wars is just Ed Wood with greater pretension and less charm.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

While Lloyd's acting wasn't the greatest, I'll give him a slight pass for being a child actor. Very few are any good and a LOT depends on the director to guide them into solid performances. While his acting might have improved over time as he got older, Lloyd would have been too young to continue to the role in Episode II since Anakin was ten years older since we last saw him.

 

[Ethros]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

No offence to Jake Lloyld, but at least Hayden Christensen provided some eye candy to the girls in the audience, and maybe certain guys.

Jake Lloyd in that video? Being a badass Jedi and banging Natalie Portman? er, no

 

[Broccoli]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

In fairness...that isn't the greatest angle they are shooting him with. Not to mention the complete lack of "movie magic" that make people look much better than they are. Plus, I'm sure they would have had him hit the gym. In short, if he was cast as a Jedi today (or when the video was), they could have made him look badass.

Plus, if the reward was banging Natalie Portman, something tells me he would have gone into "gotta look good" overdrive.

 

[Ethros]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

I'd rather see him in a sequel to Jingle All The Way




Jingle All The Way 2: It's Turbo Time

 

[Whofan]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Lucas reportedly met with Leonardo Dicaprio and Ryan Phillipe for the older Anakin, but they turned it down after reading the script. Dicaprio said the script was "So bad".


There was also a lot of fan backlash against the possibility of Dicaprio getting cast if I remember (As he was known mainly for Titanic at that point).


As for Lloyd, Lucas was originally going to cast an older actor as Anakin (possibly James Robinson from Braveheart), but he wanted him getting seperated from his mother to be more traumatic. So he decided to cast Jake. Lloyd was apparentally difficult to control on set and constantly messed up his lines (You can see this in the beginning documentary, which Plinkett used a bit from), a trait which also doomed his next project, Madison.

 

[davejames]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Ha ha, I can just imagine an actor like DiCaprio trying to make sense of the clunky, awful AOTC script.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

would he have made a better face of the franchise than christensen?

No.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Not if he was still written the same and had to try to speak the same dialogue...

A decent actor would not have been able to salvage everything but he would have been able to make something of the crap he was given. Just look at, say, Zachary Quinto on Heroes. Sylar was a crap character who was never really thought out coherently, but Quinto still made him the most watchable part of the show, even as it continued to sink further into the toilet.

Lloyd may be a good actor, but the problem with him is largely that he doesn't have the right looks for the role. George just needed to try harder with the casting. I'm certain he could have done much better.

The only thing I can say for Christensen is that he had the right looks and at least I didn't have to feel bad for him being wasted by bad writing.

Christensen has been in other movies where he's not half bad.

He's good at playing petulant, immature brats, but that's about as far as his so-called talent extends.

Still, 90% of the blame should be shouldered by Lucas, for writing and casting Anakin so horribly wrong.

Once you get past premium actors, set and costume design, and special effects, Star Wars is just Ed Wood with greater pretension and less charm.

Nope.

And..."premium actors"?

Lucas reportedly met with Leonardo Dicaprio and Ryan Phillipe for the older Anakin, but they turned it down after reading the script. Dicaprio said the script was "So bad".

Smart guys. Maybe Lucas should have taken the hint and brought in some real screenwriters to produce a script that a decent actor might have found acceptable.

 

[OmahaStar]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

Maybe Lucas should have taken the hint and brought in some real screenwriters to produce a script that a decent actor might have found acceptable.

With Lucas' ego? Never going to happen.

 

[Whofan]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

^He did have some co-writers on the prequels.

 

[Guartho]

Re: STAR WARS: Could Jake Lloyd have played a better Anakin in ep2 + e

That clip made me really want to see a Jake Lloyd / Wil Wheaton buddy movie. The sarcasm would be epic.