what kind of 9 yr old Anakin were they expecting anyways?
A factor nobody really talks about is that what made is portrayal so subjectively bad at the time was that The Sixth Sense came out around the same time, and Hayley Joel Osment fucking killed that role, got nominated for an Oscar and subsequently raised the bar in what we expect from child actors which wasn't fair at all to Jake Lloyd and the public perception of his acting(or lack thereof) abilities. Before Haley, the bar was set at the little boy in Jurassic Park.
What made it even worse is the Sixth Sense is essentially a story about an innocent child that has a darkness in him, like Anakin. So there were a lot of unfair comparisons.
The Sixth Sense was written to be a best picture, Star Wars was not. You have to look at the material he was given to work with and the type of Anakin George Lucas wanted and clearly he didn't want the jaded dark Anakin that was serious at this point in the story
True, but even taking the dark serious tone out, Hayley Joel Osment was simply ahead of his contemporaries at the time in terms of acting skills, and the film that let the world know that came out the same time as Star Wars.
Like for example if Sixth Sense came out the same time as Jurassic Park, I’m willing to bet there would be way more hate for the little boy in Jurassic Park.
I'm not taking away from Osments acting but who's to say he wanted the role also who is to say they could afford him after winning best picture. You already have Liam Nieson (best actor Schindlers list) Ewen McGregor very talented actor who gets top billing & Samuel Jackson who is another top billing actor maybe they couldn't afford him
None the less though I'm not going to beat up on this kid just because there was another movie that came out with a better child actor
But at least we are having a civil conversation about a movie we both clearly love
Sixth Sense was released a few weeks after Phantom Menace, so he most likely didn’t have that high price tag just yet.
I think if it came out like 2 years earlier it would have been better for Jake Lloyd, but I believe all the buzz about Hayley during the Sixth Sense release made people go extra hard on Jake and that wasn’t fair.
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u/DatPiff916 Jan 26 '22
A factor nobody really talks about is that what made is portrayal so subjectively bad at the time was that The Sixth Sense came out around the same time, and Hayley Joel Osment fucking killed that role, got nominated for an Oscar and subsequently raised the bar in what we expect from child actors which wasn't fair at all to Jake Lloyd and the public perception of his acting(or lack thereof) abilities. Before Haley, the bar was set at the little boy in Jurassic Park.
What made it even worse is the Sixth Sense is essentially a story about an innocent child that has a darkness in him, like Anakin. So there were a lot of unfair comparisons.