The world has become more and more sympathetic to the treatment of child actors and how they have to deal with fame and fortune at such a young age, and Jake Lloyd has become a prime example of what can go wrong.
Lloyd played young Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but he had retired from acting by 2001 and his mental health became a serious problem.
Since then, though, his mother has claimed that there is a history of schizophrenia in the family and he would have struggled growing up regardless of being in Star Wars or not.
In an interview for Scripps News, she said: “I believe that it was genetic. And his psychiatrist also agrees that Jake was going to become schizophrenic.”
During an interview with “Star Wars: Timelines” co-author Clayton Sandell, Lloyd has now updated fans about his mental health, and the news is positive for the 35-year-old.
Lloyd’s positive turn
He has just completed an 18-month stay at an inpatient mental health facility in Southern California, which he entered after suffering a full breakdown in 2023 and turning his car off on a three-lane highway.
He is now living in a new rehabilitation center and does receive treatment, but he has the freedom to come and go as he pleases.
“I can now accept taking on continued treatment, and therapy, and my meds,” he said. “Everyone’s been very supportive.”
In addition to schizophrenia, his mother previously told Sandell that Lloyd also has a neurological condition known as anosognosia, which, according to the National Institute of Health, “is a neurological condition in which the patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition.”
Overall, Lloyd is now in a better place than he was two years ago.