When people talk about the Star Wars prequels, there’s many elements that helped screw up the franchise, but if anyone had to pick one element that was the major turd in the punch bowl, it has to be Jar Jar Binks. And just when you think the character couldn’t have gotten any more ridiculous, now comes a report that Michael Jackson wanted to play the role.
As the Hollywood Reporter and Vice tell us, Ahmed Best, who gave Jar Jar his voice, said that the King of Pop wanted to play Jar Jar, but he wanted to do it with real practical effects make-up, like he became a werewolf in Thriller.
“That’s what George told me,” Best said. “Me, Natalie Portman, and George’s kids- we were at Wembley Arena at Michael Jackson’s concert. We were taken backstage and we met Michael. George introduced mea s ‘Jar Jar…’ We all go back up to a big afterparty, and I [asked George] ‘Why did you introduce me as Jar Jar?’ ‘Well, Michael wanted to do the part but he wanted to do it in prosthetics and makeup like Thriller.’ George wanted to do it in CGI.”
It seems like the Jar Jar character is like a bomb where the fall out lingers on and on for years, and this is the latest bizarro wrinkle to the character. We can only imagine how Michael Jackson’s presence in Episode One could have made the movie even more wacked out of its skull than it is, and this new revelation is indeed mind boggling. (We can only imagine that a fan made parody film with the gloved one as Jar Jar should be right around the corner.)
