Playing Anakin Skywalker Made Jake Lloyd's Life a Living Hell

Watching Jake Lloyd play Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was just as annoying for me as Jar Jar Binks. I can't blame Lloyd for the terrible performance because every actor in the movie was bad! The film had an all star cast that included Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Natalie Portman, and they all gave the worst performances of their careers. Yeah, I think we can all agree that was Lucas' fault. 

Apparently Lloyd, who is now 22-years-old, will need to eventually undergo some counselling. In a recent interview, Lloyd explains that working on The Phantom Menace was a "Living Hell" and it's because of his experinces with that film and Lucas that he never acted again. He only reprised his role as Anakin for five video games. Hell, the guy can't stand it when a camera is pointed at him. "I've learned to hate it when the cameras are pointed at me." Now that's pretty sad. Here's a kid that gets to live the dream of playing one of the most iconic villains of all time, in a beloved franchise, and it screwed him up--making him despise the very thing he loved.

During that time while he was trying go to school and be a kid, he was being rushed all over the world doing media interviews. He felt alienated from all the other students and friends around him, and resented Lucas so much that he ended up eventually destroying all his Star Wars memorabilia. Wow! He goes on to explain that,

Other children were really mean to me. They would make the sound of the lightsaber every time they saw me. It was totally mad. My entire school life was really a living hell—and I had to do up to 60 interviews a day... When you have something like that there's a lot of expectations for it to meet the standards of the public, and I don't think George [Lucas] did that.

Damn, that really sucks. After reading this interview, I don't think I'll be so hard on him again. Lucas must be hell to work with. What do you think about what Lloyd had to say?