One Star Wars actor has said that his career “began and ended” because of the franchise.
Jar Jar Binks debuted in 1999’s The Phantom Menace and was not a fan favourite at all. Although iconic, with a strangely distinctive voice, the creature wasn’t well received by viewers. Unfortunately this seriously affected Jar Jar’s voice actor Ahmed Best and the backlash he received actually hindered him from landing more acting jobs.
In an interview with People, Ahmed spoke out about his experience with hate at the time of the movie’s release. The actor said: “Everybody came for me. I’m the first person to do this kind of work, but I was also the first Black person, Black man.”
READ MORE: Click for more brilliant Daily Star showbiz stories
READ MORE: Met Gala’s most outrageous looks – cat costume, human chandelier and hot pants
The 50-year-old had such back feedback that he felt “ostracised” from Hollywood and the acting industry: “My career began and ended. I didn’t know what to do and unfortunately there was really no-one that could help me, because it was such a unique position. It had never happened before in history.”
(Image: bestahmed/Instagram)
Ahmed even called the hate the “first textbook case of cyber bullying” and said that “it really wasn’t easy” dealing with the comments. At the time, Best was “very young” and admitted that he’d “worked his whole life” to land such a massive role, but felt like “people pulled the rug from underneath him”.
(Image: Lucasfilm)
He also recalled being nervous for his first table read for the role with Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor: “This was the first time I was going to do the Jar Jar voice in front of people and to be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to do it at that reading or not. I was like: ‘I might do it, I might not,’ and as I’m reading as the first few pages go by, I’m in my head: ‘Do I do this voice? Do I not do this voice? What do I do?”
(Image: bestahmed/Instagram)
However, Best needn’t have worried – he admitted “everybody sounded so good” and debated doing Jar Jar’s voice up until the last second, but he decided to go for it and the crowd went wild. “Then I see the character name coming up and I was like: ‘F*** it,’ and I just do it, and everybody in the room goes crazy for it!”
“So, I was like: ‘Ok, all right. I got that one out. I’m supposed to be here now,” said Ahmed.
Join the Daily Star’s WhatsApp for the sexiest headlines, showbiz gossip and lots more
The Daily Star is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join us!
Through the app, we’ll send you the sassiest showbiz stories, some naught headline and a seismic smattering of aliens…along with the latest breaking news of course.
To join our community, all you have to do to join is click on this link, select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in!
No one will be able to see who has sign up and no one can send messages except for the Daily Star team. We also treat our community members to competitions, special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners.
If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN
Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here
Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
