Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best's untold story of redemption

Ahmed Best played Jar Jar Binks in 1999's The Phantom Menace, the first mainline Star Wars movie since 1983's Return of the Jedi. Immediately, the character was decried as awful, stupid, and one of the worst things to ever happen to the franchise. Best wasn't spared that blowback. In a podcast called The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks, he tells his story.

Best describes how he was approached by a casting director after a performance with his percussive dance group and invited to an audition at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch the following day. Best was over the moon. As a lifelong Star Wars fan and aspiring actor, it was the break of his dreams. 

After the audition, he was selected to play Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, which detail what happened before the original trilogy. Best was thrilled. He was even able to expand his role into a speaking part after pitching a voice he’d previously invented to entertain his young cousins. Everything was coming up roses. Or if we want to put it in Naboo terms, Millaflowers.

Suddenly, Best was on set, co-starring in the movie of his dreams alongside bona-fide Hollywood superstars like Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. What’s more, his work on Jar Jar would help define modern motion capture. The work felt fulfilling and joyful. However, Best’s dream spiraled into a nightmare once review copies of The Phantom Menace started to circulate.

The film was panned, and his character was the focus of much of the negativity. When The Phantom Menace hit theaters, things got vicious. Reactions from the Star Wars fandom were swift and brutal. Internet fandom was on the rise then, and users poured their vitriol into websites like JarJarSucks.com or JarJarBinksMustDie.com, neither of which seem to exist today.

The online hate led to one of the first documented cases of celebrity doxxing, as personal attacks and death threats were heaped upon Best with horrifying vehemence, and his phone number was leaked online. It got so bad that Best was afraid to leave his apartment. The role he thought would define his career had so suddenly come to define his lowest point in life.

Valley to peak

The waves of hatred were so overwhelming that Best considered suicide, even heading out to the Brooklyn Bridge late at night to stand on its girders and think of how he would show his community of detractors what they did to him by taking his own life. “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,” he recalled thinking. Luckily, a gust of wind came and he was forced to grab hold of a pillar for balance. The sudden instinct showed him that he wanted to live, and he climbed down, choosing to not let hate get the best of him.

From there, Best reinvented himself. He moved to Los Angeles, filmed two more Star Wars movies and threw himself back into martial arts. He went to film school, became a father, and got jobs as a producer and director of his own projects. Best shared his mental health journey with the Star Wars community and received an outpouring of support from newer, Gen Z fans who love the prequels and Jar Jar’s character. Then, another door opened.

When John Favreau, director of The Mandalorian, heard Best’s story, he was inspired to do right by the trailblazing actor. Favreau cast Best as green lightsaber-wielding Jedi Kelleran Beq in an important episode of the series in which Best’s character is revealed as a key part of Baby Yoda’s backstory: the hero who saved Grogu’s life.

Finally, Ahmed Best realized his Star Wars dream. “As an artist, I lost my confidence for so many years, but The Mandalorian gave me that affirmation of ‘You were always doing the right thing … It wasn’t you,’” he said.

As far as what’s next for Best, he intends to keep spending time with his son, pouring himself into martial arts, and is leaving the door open for further engagement with Star Wars. While re-engaging with Jar Jar is not out of the question, Best wants to focus on Kelleran Beq and a potential marriage of his interest in martial arts and a galaxy far, far away. "Right now, I would like to explore more Kelleran Beq. I’d love to do a Star Wars martial arts show – like a Jedi John Wick."

Jedi John Wick sounds dope. However, the most important takeaway from Best and his story is that you are never hopeless, even when it feels like the world is against you. There are people here that love you and support you. There is so much left for you to do. So much of your life to redefine and explore.

Help is available. Visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website for more information, or dial 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support.

Best’s story is a beacon of hope, and so are you. Out there shining in this world that so often feels dark. And whether Jar Jar or Kelleran Beq, Best’s beacon shines for a new era of Star Wars. One defined by grittier stories of trial, interpersonal relationships, and ultimate redemption in a fractured universe. Stories that help us best the war within ourselves and make a brighter world for one another.

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h/t The Guardian