Most of us remember Jake Lloyd as the bratty little pod racer kid Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” The movie didn’t get the best reception from the fans, but it did make Jake a huge bag of money. Unfortunately, being a part of the worst Star Wars trilogy made people hate Lloyd with a burning passion, leading a child to a very slippery slope.
According to his mother, Jake is now in a psychiatric rehabilitation center. In an exclusive interview with People magazine, the kid’s mother, Lisa Lloyd, opened up about her now 35-year-old son’s ongoing battle with mental illness.
With the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace being right around the corner, Lisa thought it would be the perfect time to share how her son has been doing since his Star Wars days. It’s no surprise that Jake’s problems started in high school. Or at least that’s when Lisa first noticed her son’s personality change.
According to her, Jake started talking about what ‘reality’ is and that he didn’t know if he was living in this or another reality. It was all so confusing to the young actor that, at one point, he just stopped studying and ditched the school. What was Lisa supposed to do or say to him to make things better?
It was clear that some outside help was needed. After Jake went to the doctor, he was shortly diagnosed with a possible bipolar disorder. The results were inconclusive at the time, but according to Lisa, although he was prescribed several medications to help alleviate the problem, nothing seemed to help.
As time passed, Jake graduated from high school in 2007 and was looking forward to starting his classes at Columbia College Chicago. However, according to Lisa, this short period of Lloyd’s life was when everything changed dramatically. He missed a lot of classes and told her that people were watching him.
Lisa said her son claimed to see people with “black eyes” following him, and he would sometimes engage in late-night conversations with Daily Show host Jon Stewart through the TV screen. Clearly, none of this was normal behavior, but Jake continued to see doctors until he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The bad news nearly broke the kid and made him even more depressed. Lisa said her son refused to take medication because he didn’t think he was sick. He crashed his car and turned off his phone. And then he called and said that he had been killed. But it got worse.
After going through a full-blown psychotic break in March 2023, where he stopped his car in the middle of a highway, Jake was signed into a psychiatric rehab center for 18 months. After almost a full year, Jake is feeling much better, according to his mom. And yes, he did watch the new Star Wars trilogy and he loved it. People think Jake hates Star Wars, but he really doesn’t. Or at least that’s what he’s told his mom.
