The Actor Who Played Jar Jar Binks Is Proud of His ‘Star Wars’ Legacy

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/movies/jar-jar-binks-actor-star-wars-ahmed-best.html

26 comments

  1. If i were playing a character and he is compared to Scrappy Doo, i personally would feel embrassed for the rest of my life. But whatever, let him cope that he made the 2nd worst star wars character only to Rose Tico

  2. Love him or hate him, he got attention. That’s a lot for an obscure actor.

  3. i actually didn’t have a problem with Jar Jar.

  4. He should be proud. Say what you will about Jar Jar, Best brought his a-game and did really bring the character to life.

    My complaints are with the script and directing, not him.

  5. I found Jar Jar to be an annoyance, but I think the blame for that falls more on the writing and the direction than on the voice actor. As said above, the problems with Phantom Menace extend far beyond Jar Jar.

    Actors do what they are instructed to do. If he was told to create an innocent, woefully ignorant character who is relatively annoying and succeeds through failure then he did an exquisite job.

  6. He should be. I went to the Star Wars theater marathon yesterday for May 4th. The audience loves him and he should know that.

  7. I liked Jar Jar. Even before buying into the Sith theory I liked the idea he was force sensitive, but a clown which was a cool combination.

  9. I was six years old when this movie came out and loved Jar Jar. Looking back now the whole film is corny I don’t get why one character is singled out

  11. The only conspiracy theory I believe in is darth jar jar and Star Wars died the moment Lucas abandoned that plan. Jar jar being the one to turn ani made the most sense since he was closer to ani during episode 1. Episode 2 and there should have been about jar jar turning ani subtly while still pretending to be a fool. Ep 3 ends with ani turning and then killing jar jar giving the audience both the emotional high of liking a bad guy and the realization that Anikin is now fully evil.

  12. Jar Jar is the only character in TPM that has any life to him whatsoever. That’s in a large part due to the talented animators and Best himself. Plus, Lucas’ hyperfocus on the graphics to the exclusion of virtually everything else except costuming.

    If TPM had been an all-animated film, no one would have had a problem with Jar Jar. He might have even been the standout character. George should have just made a Pixar movie. He might have been brilliant at it.

  15. Jar Jar is the antithesis of the droid class. So it was at least original. Better than the “Jr” characters by far in the new trilogy. Also the underwater scene in the 1st movie was cool, especially when compared to Star Wars casino in ROTJ. So the character was wayyy overhated and fairly toned down in 2&3. Hating on the prequels so much, resulted in 7,8 and 9 being done by not-Lucas which damaged this series more than anything. We got the clone wars and offshoots from the prequels too!

  16. He was amazing in the Manadlorian! Good for you man!

  17. He is fine just the character sucks. I don’t blame him at all.

  18. He should be jar jar was fucking awesome. I don’t get the need to hate on the prequels. All of the star wars movies are good. If you hate on a single one then you were never a star wars fan to begin with and you’ve just been playing pretend this whole time.

  19. I think the actor did an acceptable job with the role, which was mostly a voice acting role. Oddly, I don’t seem to recall seeing any contemporaneous attacks on this actor. It was many years later that I heard about it. despite being a Star Wars fan with internet access, I never saw anyone attack the actor. Sure, many people didn’t like the character. I saw that opinion quite often but that isn’t the same thing. If you don’t like the character, talk to Lucas about that. Anyway, I liked his recent role as Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. It would be fun to see him again and learn more of his story.

  20. After seeing the Disney sequels I turned the corner on JarJar also.

  21. I fn love Jar Jar it upset me that he didn’t get a better part in ep 2 and 3

  23. the one time, never again Rasta Star Wars Character. Jah Jah Binx? With Dreadlocks? come on…

  24. Good for him, he played his hand well. The net outcome of the role in the movies was not in his control.

  26. Great PR, I guess, I’m seeing this article long after it should have been put to bed.

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