With The Phantom Menace 3D out this weekend, Entertainment Weekly checked in with the man behind Jar Jar Binks, Ahmed Best, who gave his thoughts on the Gungan’s diminished role in Episode III. Best also mentioned a scene cut filmed but cut from the finished version of Revenge of the Sith where Supreme Chancellor Palpatine takes a walk with Representative Binks:
“And Palpatine kind of thanks Jar Jar for putting him in power. It’s a really interesting scene, and it shows the evolution of Jar Jar from this fun-loving kid’s character into this manipulated politician. And it was an interesting arc for the character that I thought could have been explored, because the scene is really dark. But it just didn’t fit in the movie, which I understand. But yeah, George’s take on it is Jar Jar is now just a politician.”
Why not on the DVDs? Too much unfinished effects work? It’s a shame, that sounds interesting.
Someone’s gotta write an autobiography of Binks, written by the aging Gungan post ROTS that explores his fall to the dark side of Imperial politics. He’d have ditched his old way of talking for a more refined basic, and he’d slant all his past experiences with the Jedi to show how evil they allays were. Basically just a piece of a**-kissing propaganda. It would be so ironic, and such an interesting end to the character. Who knows, maybe he’s still in Coruscant politics, or rotting away in some political jail?
I always thought that it was kind of interesting, this sort of grim, silent arc that George gave Jar Jar over the course of the trilogy. I wonder sometimes how much the decision to have everything be “his fault” stemmed from the fan backlash after Phantom Menace, but I always seem to decide that I don’t care because the idea is great and tragic and wonderfully executed no matter what inspired it.
And, sean, I would read the everloving crap out of that book. Especially if it were written as an in-universe text with footnotes and a hard-line Imperial historical propaganda slant…kind of like Fitzpatrick’s War by Theodore Judson. That’s the kind of thing that I absolutely love.
Suggested title: “BINKS: Meesa Autobiography”
Or: Meesa, meesaself, and meesa. :-)
BTW: I still love Jar Jar. And Ahmed Best seems like such a nice guy. I think he would make a terrific spokesperson for Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and the whole saga. The male answer to Ashley Eckstein, so to speak.
For the time being they should at least invite him to a couple of Disney Star Wars Weekends.
And Mr. Best is hilarious on twitter, though he doesn’t post enough.
To give the Jar-Jar character a story arc after getting into the Senate in AotC, in RotS I was expecting that Jar-Jar would have been the first to figure out Palps=Sidious and instead of the youngling killing, Sidious would have sent Anakin out to hunt and shut down Jar-Jar before Jars informed the Jedi Council. This gives that portion of the audience which didn’t like Jar-Jar, the killing they wanted but also the first act of Vader, but it would have removed the character from other future properties.
“Fool’s Ascension: the Autobiography of Grand Moff Binks”