Star Wars: The Phantom Menace actor Jake Lloyd was diagnosed with schizophrenia causing him to be moved from jail to a psychiatric facility following his June arrest.
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According to TMZ, Jake Lloyd’s mother revealed that he was transferred from a jail cell to a psychiatric facility after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Lloyd is the former child actor who starred as Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 blockbuster film Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Lloyd’s mother also told TMZ that she spoke with Jake last week and can already see an improvement in his personality. A date has not yet been set for his release. It was also added, “His family wants him to take his time to get healthy.”
Jake Lloyd starred in Phantom Menace with Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson. The movie made $2 billion worldwide and the child actor was only 10 years old at the time. Lloyd was only 10 years old when he became famous. Following with becoming an instant celebrity, Lloyd quit acting altogether claiming that the role had made his childhood a “living hell.”
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‘Other children were really mean to me,’ he said in a 2012 interview. ‘They would make the sound of the light saber every time they saw me. It was totally mad.’ Lloyd said at one point he was doing around 60 interviews a day. ‘My entire school life was really a living hell — and I had to do up to 60 interviews a day.’
Lloyd was so upset towards the George Lucas directed movie that he destroyed all of his Star Wars memorabilia, and only reprised his role as Anakin for five video games.
‘I’ve learned to hate it when the cameras are pointed at me,’ he said. Lloyd, whose mother is an entertainment agent, also admitted in the interview with Scifitv.com that he doesn’t like watching the film anymore and he blames George for that. ‘When you have something like that there’s a lot of expectations for it to meet the standards of the public and I don’t think George did that,’ he said. ‘For me to go back and watch it now would be kind of creepy.’
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Lloyd was arrested in June after a high-speed car chase that ended with him crashing into a tree. He was driving in Charleston, South Carolina, when sheriff’s deputies began pursuing him. The chase went on for 25 miles before Lloyd crashed his car. He was arrested for reckless driving, failure to stop, resisting arrest and driving without a license.
Lloyd retired as an actor and is being held on $10,700 bail.
