Jar Jar Binks actor almost jumped off Brooklyn Bridge after backlash: ‘It was terrible’
nypost.comgiven serious screen time in George Lucas’ “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” released in 1999.But Star Wars superfans hated him.
Not just the flamboyant, oddball character, but Best too, apparently for even agreeing to play the part. The butt of countless jokes before the film was even released, Jar Jar and Best were besieged by an internet-fueled campaign of abuse — including death threats to the actor.At one point, Best told the Guardian in a new interview, he found himself on the Brooklyn Bridge, contemplating ending it all.“I’ll show all of you.
I’ll show you what you’re doing to me. And when I’m gone, then you’ll feel exactly what I went through,” Best remembers thinking.
The unlucky actor reveals the heartache of his big break leading almost immediately to the darkest period of his life in a new podcast, “The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks.” He speaks about the excitement of being scouted by Lucas’ people while working in a percussive dance troupe — and the terrible shock that soon followed. “I was an enormous Star Wars fan as a kid,” Best said in the podcast. “I didn’t know what was happening.
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