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Jar Jar Binks Actor Reflects on Backlash to Phantom Menace: 'My Career Began and Ended' with Star Wars

Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in the 'Star Wars' prequels, is reflecting on 'The Phantom Menace,' and how the criticisms and targeted harassment that followed the film prevented him from continuing to work at the time. Now, he says he still wants "really good closure" for his character.

Despite The Phantom Menace making over $1 billion at the worldwide box office in 1999, Best says he was "ostracized" from doing similar motion-capture work in Hollywood due to the widespread criticism his character received at the time. While principal photography took place over four or five months in England, Best also journeyed back and forth from New York to Industrial Light & Magic's studios in San Francisco for two years to complete the CGI requirements of the role. The actor remembers Portman being his "little sister" on the film, Neeson as a "fantastic person" to do scenes with, and says he and McGregor were "very much on the same wavelength" because they both grew up watching George Lucas's original trilogy.

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