More than 40 years ago Star Wars, known in our country as Star Wars, came to the big screen. The saga created by George Lucas quickly became one of the most acclaimed by the public, who welcomed this fantasy universe with open arms.
We remember Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, among others, from its cast. Some of them continued their careers, succeeding in the world of cinema; However, there are others who made the decision to move away from the world of acting, due to the stress of this profession.
That is the case of Jake Lloyd, known for playing the child version of Anakin Skywalker in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the trilogies. The 35-year-old left the world of acting behind after being diagnosed with a mental illness.
Lloyd made his film debut at age 7, becoming Anakin Skywalker shortly after. This role made the little actor become a success, something that unfortunately led to a spiral of harassment and stress.
Likewise, Lloyd was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia a few years later. In fact, his psychiatric disorder caused the interpreter to be arrested in 2015 after driving at full speed on the highway, without a license and trying to escape from the authorities. At that time, his mother justified the fact by claiming that Lloyd had not taken his medication.
After spending time in prison, the actor ended up entering a mental health center: “Jake has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but unfortunately he also has a condition called anosognosia that causes a lack of understanding of his illness. He has grown closer to his family and we are all working hard to help him with this. He is still a kind and loving person,” his family clarified in a statement on Geek News Now in 2020.
Luckily, the interpreter’s mother assures that Jake Lloyd is getting better: “He’s doing much better than we expected,” she says, making it clear that Star Wars will always be very special in her family: “People think that Jake hates Star Wars, but he is passionate about it.”
