Jake Lloyd's Personal Saga: New Focus Is Helping Determine His Current Reality
2025 kicks off with the promise of new beginnings for the former Star Wars actor.
Jake Lloyd wants his fans to know something.
Years into dealing with a schizophrenia diagnosis that has largely hijacked his post-Star Wars acting life— he’s finally feeling “pretty good”.
First, a little backstory.
Last March I had a chance to talk with Jake’s mom, Lisa Lloyd, about her son’s reality, which for the last 15 years or so has been dominated by his considerable mental health struggles. In my original story, Lisa— with Jake’s blessing— told a heartbreaking and harrowing tale. It includes a 10-month stint in jail, Jake’s belief that people with “black eyes” were watching him, and a full-blown psychotic break in the middle of a busy Southern California street.
As we roll into a brand new year, however, Jake’s story is looking a lot more hopeful.
I’d always planned to follow up with Jake and his mom to check on his progress. After reaching out last month, I got a call. Lisa told me that Jake wanted to talk with me directly. We ended up chatting a couple days before Christmas.
I learned that a few weeks ago, Jake successfully completed an 18-month stay at an inpatient mental health facility in Southern California. As 2025 begins, he is living at a new rehabilitation center where he’s still receiving treatment but is basically free to come and go as he pleases.
One of the key components of Jake’s recent progress, his mother says, is that he seems to be overcoming a hurdle that for years prevented him from even acknowledging his schizophrenia diagnosis. That hurdle has a clinical name: anosognosia. It’s a neurological condition that causes a patient to be unconsciously in denial about their symptoms.
It meant that Jake couldn’t grasp why it was important to take the medications that were keeping him from hearing voices, occasionally acting erratically, and generally spiraling.
These days, however, he seems to have a newfound sense of acknowledgement when I ask how he’s feeling.
“Pretty good, considering these 20 years of time that have come to an end,” Jake tells me. “I can now accept taking on continued treatment, and therapy, and my meds. Everyone's been very supportive.”
(His mom is also on the phone and gently reminds Jake it hasn’t quite been 20 years since he was officially diagnosed. Though sometimes, it might feel like it.)
During our conversation, Jake sounds coherent and eager to talk, but sometimes confuses a word or veers off on tangents. His mom says that can happen more often when he’s tired. I ask him to describe how he feels when he’s taking his medication.
“I don’t have the time for feeling volatile,” Jake says. “It is very much a cushion.”
Jake, now 35, says “good things” have come from his time in treatment. Hitting what he calls “rock bottom” was something he says needed to happen in order to “honestly take part in treatment, honestly take your meds, and honestly live with your diagnosis.”
At just 8 years old, of course, Jake became one of the most famous faces in the world when filmmaker George Lucas cast him as young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, released in 1999.
In the article I wrote last year, Lisa firmly debunked years of internet speculation that suggested negative reactions to The Phantom Menace from critics and audiences drove Jake to quit acting and contributed to his mental health decline. Among other reasons, she pointed out that there was already a history of schizophrenia on his dad’s side of the family.
While Jake sometimes faced bullying at school, Lisa says she was mostly able to shield him from online vitriol, including an infamously-callous Newsweek article that criticized his acting. (The article drew a sharp rebuke from another former child star-turned-bigtime director, Ron Howard.)
Today, Jake remains a Star Wars fan with fond memories of making The Phantom Menace and, he says, interacting with other fans. (At this point, I take a moment to tell him about the hugely-positive response I received to the first article, which I believe demonstrates that there’s a lot of love out there for Jake Lloyd.)
“The experience I've had with the fans is immediately therapeutic,” he says. “Right now, it's still therapeutic. It's helpful for people and healthy. It isn't something I'd shy away from.”
Jake says he wants fans to know he feels their support.
“I really do appreciate the time that's been taken on us,” says Jake. “I'm very appreciative.”
Jake has—for now—stopped making public appearances at fan conventions like he used to, but says Star Wars is still a happy place for him. He recently watched the Star Wars: Ahsoka series, and lately has been “intensely” playing a few classic Star Wars video games, including Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
“I want to play The Force Unleashed II,” he tells me. “I just beat the first one.”
Lisa says she is grateful that Jake’s new focus is helping determining his current reality. (If I may blatantly echo a Qui-Gon Jinn line from The Phantom Menace that also pops up in the new Skeleton Crew series.)
“Jake’s actually getting so much better than he was,” Lisa says. “It’s a big relief for me and the rest of his family. We're all just thrilled that he's doing as well as he is, and that he's working really hard at it. We appreciate that.”
Lisa says she and Jake have been going to the movies a lot lately. She credits his medication for helping him stay focused through an entire two-hour film.
Jake tells me he hasn’t watched any Star Wars movies or shows lately, but says he intends to get back to that soon.
“I’m holding out for May the Fourth with my mom,” he says.
Lisa confirms the plan.
“It will be a Star Wars day, as always,” she says. “But I think this year, we’re getting t-shirts.”
This is a lovely piece, such great news!
Kudos to Jake and his mother Lisa for sharing about Jake's illness and to Clayton for writing about it. Schizophrenia is an absolutely devastating illness, and unless you've experienced it firsthand, or through a friend or family member, you have no idea the total destruction it can cause. And in some ways, that is the worst part: except perhaps for your doctor, no one really understands. My son is just two years older than Jake and has always been a huge fan of Star Wars. He will be deeply consoled to know that Jake has also battled this illness and that a fellow sufferer is winning the war.