May will mark 25 years since “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” first lit up movie screens. Many fans are already celebrating the silver anniversary, thanks to a fresh round of published interviews with cast members, a new poster, and news the film will soon be returning to theaters.
Noticeably absent from the recent coverage, however, is one key member of “The Phantom Menace” cast: Jake Lloyd. The child actor, chosen over 3,000 others to play podracing phenom and Jedi-to-be Anakin Skywalker in the George Lucas space opera, turned 35 last week. Since the movie, Lloyd has been mostly out of the spotlight, his life largely a mystery to his devout fans.
In an exclusive interview with Scripps News, his mother, Lisa Lloyd, provided a glimpse into Jake’s personal saga in the years since appearing in that galaxy far, far away — sharing her son’s turbulent struggle with mental illness, family tragedy, and the reasons she’s more hopeful today than she’s been in years.
Lisa noted that her son is aware that she is speaking out to tell his story. “Jake started having some trouble in high school,” Lisa said, recalling the time she first noticed her son’s personality changing. “He started talking about ‘realities.’ He didn’t know if he was in this reality, or a different reality. I didn’t really know exactly what to say to that.”
One day after school, Lisa asked her son if he’d finished his homework. “And he was like, ‘Well, I don’t even know if I need to do it. I don’t know which reality I’m in,’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Well, you’re in my reality today, so you have to do your homework.’”
Lisa took Jake to a doctor who suggested he might have bipolar disorder. They tried different medications to treat his symptoms, but she says nothing worked. Jake graduated from high school in 2007 and was looking forward to attending classes that fall at Columbia College Chicago.
His brief enrollment at the private arts school didn’t go great. “He missed a lot of classes, and he was telling me that people were following him,” Lisa said. She could sense a downward spiral. Jake would sometimes mention seeing people with “black eyes” staring at him on the street, and having late-night conversations with “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart through his TV.
“He didn’t tell us he was hearing voices at the time. But he was,” Lisa remembers. After a semester and a half, Jake left college in March 2008.
