Michael Jackson Nearly Appeared In Star Wars: But Can You Guess As Who?
As well as being the King of Pop and the master of the moonwalk, Michael Jackson nearly found fame as perhaps the most despised Star Wars character of them all – Jar Jar Binks.
Loathed almost universally by Star Wars fans for almost single-handedly destroying the franchise, Binks is, as the Inquisitr formerly reported, “Perhaps the most vile and irritating character ever to get a foothold in cinematic history.”
“Jar Jar looked like how you’d imagine Frankenstein’s monster would if he’d been created not by the good doctor, but a peculiar breed of sunlight shunning and basement dwelling script writers who had just been given a high grade batch of psychedelics and carte blanche to create a Star Wars character that kids, who possess all the emotional intelligence and savvy of a three-hour-old blade of grass, could really identify with.”
What untold damage playing a rubber faced freak with a speech impediment and eyes as empty as the abyss, would have had on Michael Jackson’s career, god alone knows, because Jackson never realized his dream of playing the character whose presence surrounds the Phantom Menace like a bad smell.
Yet it wasn’t for want of trying. According to Ahmed Best who played Binks and made the much-hated role his own, Michael Jackson really wanted to take on the guise of Jar Jar Binks and wander at will into the Star Wars universe.
In an interview with Vice, Best explained how George Lucas took him to a Michael Jackson concert and introduced him to the moonwalking maestro backstage as Jar Jar Binks, which Best thought a little suspect to say the least.
“Me, Natalie Portman, and George’s kids – we were at Wembley arena at Michael Jackson’s concert. We were taken backstage and we met Michael. There was Michael and Lisa Marie [Presley]. George introduced me as ‘Jar Jar’ and I was like, ‘That’s kind of weird’. Michael was like, ‘Oh. OK.’ I thought, ‘What is going on?'”
What was going on was soon explained by Lucas at an after party.
“After Michael had driven off, we all go back up to a big after party. I’m having a drink with George and I said, ‘Why did you introduce me as Jar Jar?’ He said, ‘Well, Michael wanted to do the part but he wanted to do it in prosthetics and makeup like ‘Thriller’.’ George wanted to do it in CGI. My guess is ultimately Michael Jackson would have been bigger than the movie, and I don’t think he wanted that.”
So for Jackson, who was such a fan of Star Wars he had life-size figures of Darth Vader, C-3PO and Boba Fett being among his personal possessions at his Neverland ranch, the dream of appearing as a character a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, never saw the light of day.
(Photo By Phil Walter/Getty Images)
