Through no fault of his own, Ahemed Best’s supposed big break turned out to both define and effectively ruin his entire career in one fell swoop. The unknown actor must have been over the moon when he landed a major role in George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, only for Jar Jar Binks to go down in the history books for all the wrong reasons.
It’s hard to overstate just how much fans loathed the fast-talking Gungan, with many a childhood being ruined by his mere existence, at least if you pay heed to the various social media platforms where the mere mention of Jar Jar is enough to incite a full-blown online riot.
However, one fan has taken an incredibly measured, thought-provoking, and dare we say accurate take to the forums of Reddit, naming the pilloried participant in The Phantom Menace as one of the 21st Century’s most important characters. And you know what? They’ve got a very good point.
Fully digital creations, intricately detailed figures created entirely within a computer, and motion captured performances have become commonplace these days, but it arguably all dates back to Jar Jar. It may have been the combination of Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis that established it as a new form of cinematic storytelling in The Lord of the Rings, but Jar Jar walked so that Gollum could run.
Serkis is generally lauded as the resident Don of the performance capture arena, but none of it would have been possible were it not for Lucasfilm pushing the envelope in Episode I, with a huge assist from Best.