The performers have been unanimous in emphasizing how much Ahmed's presence meant on the set. "There were times when I had trouble keeping a straight face," Liam Neeson laughed on Friday. "His motions, and those noises he came up with." I knew that Best's on-set performance had made Jar Jar real for the cast and crew. But I also knew that for the film, the suited actor had been almost completely replaced by a computer-generated version of the character. And I wondered how Jar Jar would come across. In the end, would Ahmed's performance seem more like a voice-over to an animated character? Or would we really see his physical performance through the character of Jar Jar?
The combination of Ahmed's voice and body language, it turns out, did make for a distinctive character that was uniquely Ahmed Best. And after the film's credits rolled and I stepped into the lobby, it was the most extraordinary feeling to speak with this man who looked nothing like Jar Jar -- and yet was Jar Jar. The mind adjusted with surprising speed to this identity who had two different appearances.
Ahmed Best's eyes are filled with life and intensity. They are nothing like the yellow eyes on stalks that sprout from Jar Jar's head, and yet, in his eyes I could see the character. In his body language. In his vitality. I didn't really think it would be possible, but somehow the CG creation had truly expressed something essential to Ahmed Best.
"Yeah, that was me up there," Ahmed agreed, shaking his head in amazement after the screening. How did it feel to see this alter ego on the screen? "Well I was there, I did all that. I was there. And then Rob Coleman at ILM captured all my movements to make Jar Jar move, and so it really did feel like seeing myself up there. I mean, you look for yourself when you see a movie you're in for the first time. And that was me up there!"
George Lucas had Ahmed's abilities in physical acting clearly in mind from the beginning. "I cast Ahmed Best because he was a talented actor," Lucas said Sunday morning. "Also because he focuses on movement and dance to portray a character with his body. In the beginning that was the primary focus, because I knew I could figure out the voice later. What I had to determine with Ahmed was whether he was up to acting with all the other characters, whether he could give them what they needed. Could he really create this character I had in mind with his body movement?" Lucas' determination was that Ahmed was, in fact, best for the job, and the results proved out the director's instincts. "He turned in a great performance on the set," Lucas concluded with a smile.
Ahmed looked pretty dazzled at seeing the spectacle of Episode I for the first time. "It was the most amazing, fantastic thing I've ever seen!" he said. "The biggest surprise for me was Coruscant." he said of the film's colossal metropolis planet. "When we were filming, the sets were all just blue, or green. For Coruscant, that landing platform scene, I had no idea that it would end up so busy in the film. I had no idea it was so huge!" Of the film's dense imagery overall, he said, "There was so much in there. The details! I'll have to watch it a thousand more times to catch it all." Maybe so, but Ahmed's own remarkable contribution is evident immediately. Jar Jar's design and creation were the result of a number of talented people working under George Lucas' direction. But the character's charm is clearly due to Ahmed himself, and it's a tribute to Rob Coleman and ILM that it comes through so well in the film.
