hi my name is cameron finley i'm seven years old i'll be eight on
august 30th hi it's a beaver i'm michael and i'm
nine years old hi i'm michael reynold and i'm aiden half
hi my name is jake lloyd and i'm seven years old
hi my name is justin burfield and i'm 9.
george wrote it knowing that it would be an incredible task to find the right
child actor he had every imaginable element built into this kid from
mechanical ability to earnestness his look was important his intelligence
and usually children's roles aren't that complex and in anakin you had to have it
all we tested literally thousands of kids we
went all over the world for three years doing tests shooting
tapes looked in england and ireland and
scotland and in north america and canada and the
states and it was a process of just going to
every single location and contacting the agents contacting the schools and kind
of throwing out this big net bringing in as many boys as i could i
think i actually interviewed about 3 000
anakin's and from that 3 000 i narrowed it down
to three boys scene one eight take one
scene one eight take two you know honestly i think they
seemed like first kid we just saw was the best
i think jake lloyd did a great job kind of wise beyond their years
uh and they had to have a a good charisma good personal quality about
them that could carry this kind of a film we
decided to to bring them all up to a test screen
at the ranch with george directing that's a huge
thing for a little boy to think that he could be the next anakin skywalker i
mean in their world that's mammoth this is natalie
all right so anakin is a little boy who lives with his mother on
tatooine you all know that i mean yeah and um he works in this
little shop that sells used spaceship parts
there's very few children who can actually act because
acting is experience and you know kids have limited experience
you've never met each other so this is the first
first time you've ever said anything to each other
scene one take one
and action i'm a pilot you know and someday i'm gonna fly away from this
place you're a pilot all my life i'm a pilot you know
and someday i'm gonna fly away from this place you're a pilot
all my life i'm a pilot you know someday i'm gonna fly away from this
place you're a pilot all my life you're just a little boy
i won't always be i won't always be i won't always be great
perfect i'm sorry we had leia and luke and then from that we had to draw
who their parents could or would be and so we're kind of going backwards
natalie had to look like carrie fisher and anakin had a look like
mark hamill i was matching parents to children
and i was matching an ensemble cast i think you have to be a bit of a
investigator and you have to enjoy the chase
i'm jake and i'm playing anakin skywalker
everyone came to the table equal and everyone had an equal shot at it
it's just who's right for the role and that was the only qualifier that i had
to work within ian mcdermott one of the most important things in this
particular character is that he is a wonderfully nice boy and then there's
this very intuitive kind of gut feel you get about that's
the one but jake i just got that feeling
i'm a pilot you know and someday i'm gonna fly away from this place
you know i just want to say before we move on that jake lloyd really didn't
deserve any of the hate that he got any of the
bullying people can be very jealous and they can be very cruel
and it frankly he let it ruin his life and when it gets to that magnitude it's
pretty hard not to let that happen so i hope he's good in today's time i hope
he's fine and happy and uh has he been able to move on from the
bullying but you know he did a fine job so you know a lot of people saying you
ruined star wars this and that it's like no
man that's the same thing that happened to ahmed best ahmed best came out saying
that you know he was thinking of committing suicide and
things like that because of all the hate that he got and he thought his career
would be over and i'm glad that he fought those
thoughts and he listened to the truth of the matter
which is that he was a great actor and he brought a lot of joy to a lot of kids
and his career as we can see is anything but over