Pheaturing Ahmed Best

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Tuesday. How are you? I wanna start off with a good story. After successfully winning the NFL Super Bowl LIV game against the San Francisco 49ers in Miami on Sunday, Kansas City Chiefs’ Derrick Nnadi decided to celebrate in a big way. How did he celebrate? By helping homeless dogs find new homes! Yes, the defensive tackle, who was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, decided to pay adoption fees for all dogs currently available at KC Pet Project. A big round of applause for this talented man. This is how one celebrates, by giving back to your community! This isn’t the first time the Chiefs player has helped homeless animals. Nnadi has been helping shelter dogs all season through the Derrick Nnadi Foundation’s partnership with KCPP. KC Pet Project cares for over 10,000 animals a year and works with several Animal Welfare organizations to help increase the number of homeless pets adopted, and “focus on lifesaving programs promoting pet retention, identification, lost pet reunions, and pet ownership education throughout the community.” Through a Facebook Post, KC Pet Project announced the donation noting, “we have had an amazing, season-long, partnership with Derrick and he couldn’t have thought of a better ending.” According to the foundation, the player’s father taught him at a young age that “as Nnadi’s we don’t receive, we give” which is what the foundation embodies. Last year in September, Nnadi was named NFLPA Community MVP the week which garnered him national recognition for his philanthropic efforts in his hometown of Virginia Beach and in Kansas City. Those actions included equipping students with school supplies through the Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Virginia, providing a back-to-school shopping spree for families who lost their mother in Virginia Beach, and hosting another shopping spree for local children in Kansas City. If you are interested in adopting an animal or want to learn more about KCPP, you can click here...
kcpetproject.org.  Finish this blog first though. And once again congratulations to the Chiefs for their well deserved Super Bowl win!
Jeremy Clemetson, who owns an East of Chicago Pizza location in Barberton, Ohio, is in trouble with his community for a billboard advertising his pizza place that said, “Fat people are harder to kidnap,” presumably encouraging people to eat lots and lots of his pizza because it would help prevent them from being dragged into a van and driven out to a secluded barn and where God knows what would be done to them. And also their pizza-built heft would make it more difficult to dismember their bodies and burn them after the fact. So much more muscle and gasoline required! Of course, this doesn’t really take into account that fat people are easier to chase down than, say, a lithe jogger. But semantics aren’t really the issue here. At least one person was not amused with the ad for reasons beyond the logic of it. They wrote into East of Chicago Pizza’s corporate headquarters and said they found the sign to be in extremely poor taste, especially because it was apparently Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Here's the billboard...

Clemetson said he never meant to offend, and had no idea it was Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Still, Clemetson ultimately decided it was better to take the sign down. It probably is for the best that he took the sign down.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is no longer seeking the commitment of a former Midwest Christian Services student who was convicted of multiple sex crimes since the individual now identifies as a woman. According to court records, the state dismissed the application on January 9th, 2020. Attorney general spokesman Lynn Hicks declined to comment on the reason for the dismissal, but noted, “an offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism.” Back in November 2019, 23-year-old Joseph Mathew Smith was “undergoing medical treatment that is needed prior to Smith’s potentially undying gender reassignment surgery.” At the time of this announcement, Smith had already been convicted of molesting a fellow MCS student in 2014. Smith received treatment for gender reassignment over the past two years at Newton Correctional Facility. Now identified as she, the transgender inmate first expressed the desire to start transgender classification in October 2017 and started using female pronouns. Smith expressed a preference to identify as Josie Smith. According to court documents, HIcks stated, “We don’t believe we have evidence sufficient to prove Josie Smith has a significant chance of reoffending.” The Iowa Department of Corrections transferred Smith to the Sioux City Residential treatment facility for transitional release, but haven’t stated when Smith will be released. Despite the severity of the situation, Hicks cautions the public to no “overreact to Smith’s upcoming release.” She will be subject to sex offender registration requirements for the rest of her life, which includes regular meetings with a probation officer, and a listing on an attorney general clearinghouse. The state’s expert, Dr. Jeffery Davis, prepared a preliminary report that stated the felon molested as many as 15 victims that range from ages 1 to 13 before being sentenced to prison in December 2015. The report noted the likelihood of reoffending within five years of release exceeded 20 percent since victims were of both genders and because Smith was under the age of 25. Smith has also never had a long term relationship. The report stated, “His sexual encounters appear to have primarily involved molestation, including his own molestation by multiple perpetrators, or his victimization of others.” The report stated that since the age of 7, Smith was molested repeatedly. It recommends Smith be confined at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders in Cherokee for an “indefinite period.” It was premised upon the convicted sex offender to have the “sex drive of a man.”
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts held their annual awards ceremony Sunday night, and as the British Oscars, they're even more British than the regular Oscars. Prince William is the president of BAFTA, and sat in the audience with the Duchess of Cambridge as celebrities mocked the Royals, evoking both Megxit and Brexit, and the Joker got serious about systemic racism. Winner Brad Pitt didn't make it to London, so he sent Margot Robbie up to deliver his acceptance speech. After thanking the Academy, Robbie read, "[Pitt] says he’s going to name this Harry because he is really excited about bringing it back to the states with him.” "His words not mine, thanks," Robbie said as she backed away. Duchess Kate appeared to enjoy the joke, but Prince William squirmed. A joke they most certainly didn't enjoy was when Rebel Wilson brought up notorious pedophile pal Prince Andrew. "Welcome to Royal Andrew Hall," Wilson quipped, as the cameras blessed us with a reaction shot of the Duke and Duchess. P-Dubs (Prince William's street name, maybe) used his big speech at the end of the show to talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion, but Twitter found it to be lacking and hypocritical, considering his family's treatment of his biracial sister-in-law. More proof that the real prince of Super Bowl Sunday is Prince.
While certainly of less consequence than a massive Midwestern geography error by the president during an election year, Paula Abdul is a famous person who tweeted something dumb, and that's fun, too. Before the big game, Abdul expressed her excitement over the upcoming performances of Demi Lovato, Jennifer Lopez, and Shakira, except that instead of using a picture of Shakira, she posted a picture of her and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

Abdul deleted the tweet, but not before Nicole Scherzy could post a cute reply...

So, a few months ago when I saw The Rise of Skywalker when I saw this scene it reminded me of something...

And then it hit me...

See what I mean? Like father like son. Hey, future kids, this was George Washington...

Haha. So, you heard of Trump's Space Force, right? Have you seen the logo for it? I have it here...

Do you like Hot Pockets? Did you see the new flavor?

Yum. I mean... yuck. So, sometimes journalists make mistakes which leads to some very cringe worthy editorials. Like this one for example...

That's funny. So, did you see the new Brexit stamp?

Haha. If I had a TARDIS I would go to see the Berlin Wall but knowing my luck I'd get there when they're building the thing.

Hey, so, today's guest Ahmed Best played Jar Jar Binks in a few of the Star Wars films. Did you know Jar Jar has an album out? No? Take a look...

Told ya. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...

Top Phive Other Pizza Restaurant Offensive Slogans
5. Priests don’t think fat little boys are sexy, so book your next birthday party with us!
4. You can’t get drafted into World War III if you lose a foot to diabetes.
3. The more you eat, the sooner one of you gets to cash a “fat” life insurance check.
2. We live in rural Ohio, so pack on some extra protection for when your pill-addicted brother stabs you after you catch him stealing twenty dollars from you.
And the number one other pizza restaurant offensive slogan is...
1. Kill yourself… deliciously.

Haha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, it's time to talk football with my good friend Jeff for the last time this season...

Me: Hey, Jeff, welcome to the Phile for the last time for Phootball Talk this season. How are you? 

Jeff: Hey Jason, I'm doing well. Last one of the year! So sad!

Me: So, that was a great game, right? What are a few highlights for you?

Jeff: Yeah, that was an incredible game. Highlights? Gotta go with the deep throw late in the fourth quarter that led to the game winning touchdown from Mahomes, for sure. I think the two interceptions from Mahomes were highlights too because they were so rare. I think he only had three in the regular season so for him to throw two in a game?

Me: I liked after 38 years of coaching, 28 years as an NFL coach and 21 years as an NFL head coach, Andy Reid is finally a Super Bowl champion. If that was you how would you celebrate? Reid said, "I’m gonna go get the biggest cheeseburger you’ve ever seen."

Jeff: Hard to argue the biggest cheeseburger comment by Reid. I'd probably have fainted if I were him. Glad he didn't! And I agree, I like Reid. He's a no nonsense kind of guy. Glad to see him finally win.

Me: I like Mahones a lot, I wish he was on the Giants. In just his second season as a starting quarterback, he has won a Super Bowl. It is an accomplishment that Mahomes has been dreaming for quite some time. Back when he was a junior in high school, Mahomes watched the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Before the game, he tweeted about the perks of being the winning quarterback and getting to go to Disney World.

Me: There's a tweet for everything. What is your take on Mahones? He's gonna have a great career I think.

Jeff: That's awesome! I didn't know about the tweet. Yeah, I agree, Mahomes seems like a great guy. He'll be the face of the league for the next decade. He was quick to shut down talk of a Chiefs dynasty which again shows you what kind of character he has. Back when I collected a lot of sports cards, I had one of his dad's. Now I wish I had kept it so I could get one for Patrick as well.

Me: So, this was amazing... The Kansas City Chiefs overcame a 20-10 4th quarter deficit to come back and beat the San Francisco 49ers. After going up 24-20 and turning the 49ers over on downs, Chiefs running back Damien Williams nailed the dagger with a 38-yard touchdown run to seal it. When was the last time something that exciring happened at the Super Bowl?

Jeff: For me, it would have to be the pick in the end zone by the Patriots versus the Falcons. You know, the ultimate choke game? That was probably the last big dynamic play that ended a Super Bowl.

Me: It’s been a long time for Chiefs fans, 50 years to be exactly, so they are partying like there’s no tomorrow. For one particular Chiefs fan, there might not be a tomorrow if he continues to party like this. Did you see the Chiefs fan accidentally puts himself on fire celebrating the team’s win? Here's a screenshot...

Me: No matter what team wins there's always one idiot, right?

Jeff: Social darwinism. Survival of the fittest. You set yourself on fire celebrating, you kinda deserve it. But I will take that over the nonsense of rioting in the streets of the city that won, turning cars over and destroying businesses.

Me: Okay, I have to admit this made me tear up... I thought it was so bloody cool... To preface the start of the game, the league had a video shown with a young fan running through various NFL cities, interacting with numerous players who shouted, “Take it the house, kid!” and even payed tribute to the late Pat Tillman. The video culminated with the boy running into Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, site of Super Bowl LIV, proceeding to then run out of the tunnel in real life and deliver the ball to the head official to start the big game. What did you think of that?

Jeff: When I saw the kid, I thought it was old footage of Odell Beckham Jr. with that hair! LOL. No, I thought that was a great video. I had a feeling he was going to run into the stadium before they did it, but it was still a memorable commercial and a great way to celebrate 100 years of football.

Me: I thought it was Odell when I saw the preview of it. Haha. Well, this was awkward. Pregame during Super Bowl LIV, the NFL were honoring some of the greatest players in their 100-year history. One of those players happened to be O.J. Simpson...

Jeff: There's a part of me that wasn't surprised. The O.J. mention was for what he did on the field. And keep in mind, O.J. was found innocent of the murders. What O.J. Simpson did on the field shouldn't be erased.

Me: Okay. Then Phile Alum Joe Namath wasn't mentioned... is that odd to you?

Jeff: While I like Namath, when you look at the greatest quarterbacks in history I don't know that I would put Namath on the list. For one major reason, he had more interceptions than he had touchdowns. Forty-seven more interceptions than touchdowns. Namath showed flashes of great, including in his Super Bowl... but that doesn't make him a great quarterback throughout his career.

Me: So, I did not like the Half Time Show and I was surprised Pitbull didn't show up during it but he did perform at the pre-game stuff. What did you think of it? I was disappointed that their was a wardrobe malfunction. Haha.

Jeff: I'm not a fan of either performer so I didn't see all of the performances. It was fine for what it was. I agree. I thought Pitbull would show up. But I'm not sad that he didn't. And come on, really? That's kinda sad. I wasn't expecting or hoping for one. If you wanted to see nudity, watching a football game isn't where I would expect to find it.

Me: True. Haha. What about the commercials? I loved the Walmart one. With baby characters being all the rage these days, Planters decided to go down it for their big game ad. Mr. Peanut was reborn as "Baby Nut" in Planters’ commercial, which starred numerous other characters from television. I liked it but also groaned. I don't think they showed the Mr. Peanut death commercial, did they? By the way, speaking of tearing up... that fucking Google commercial... hahaha.

Jeff: Walmart has done that commercial before, or something close to it. It's still cool to see all those pop culture icons in one commercial though. I did enjoy it. Trying to capitalize on all things Baby Yoda I thought it was stupid with Baby Nut. And because I'm dead inside, I didn't like the Google commercial. I'm sure if I wasn't, it would have been a better commercial. My favorite commercial was the Facebook Group one. We see all people in random Facebook groups that have the word "rock" in it. It ends with a Rocky Balboa group. We see a man running up the steps with a hood on. He takes the hood off and it's Chris Rock. "Were you expecting someone else?" he asked. Then Stallone walks on and said, "Like me?" and they pretend to box. I thought that was awesome.

Me: America has taken back another team from Great Britain... but...

Jeff: NOOOOOOO. Send it back! Send it back!

Me: Hahahahahahaha. There's a bunch of teams that I haven't shown yet that have been taken back... Minnesota, Carolina, L.A., Seattle, New Orleans, New York Jets, Chicago, and Arizona. Which one do you wanna see? The others I will show here on the Phile during the next few weeks.

Jeff: Wait? There's a football team called the Jets? Oh wait, yeah, they beat the Giants. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Me: Ha! Here's their new logo and name...

Me: Okay, so, I have to tell you something, when everybody asked me who I was going for at the Super Bowl I said Chiefs... except for on the Phile when I predicted the 49ers will win by 3. The whole damn game I was sooo confused, thinking I picked the Chiefs. I was sooo excited when they were up by 3. But I didn't pick them officially, I picked the 49ers here. Anyway, how did we do? 

Jeff: You are correct. You had picked the winner by 3 but you picked the 49ers, not the Chiefs. I picked the Chiefs to win by 7. And thought they were only going to win by 4 until that late touchdown sealed the victory for me! 

Me: I have to congratulate you as this years winner, Jeff, again... ugh!!! What was the final score? 

Jeff: The final score was 56-46 me. Most of that was because of the Steelers having more wins than the Giants. Ultimately I only predicted three more games than you did so it was a close game.

Me: I have to thank you, you did a great job as always doing this week after week. I love doing this with you so we will do it again for the 10th time next season. I will see you back here in about a month when you will be a pheatured guest about your new book. Is there anything you wanna say? I hope you had fun this season. 

Jeff: Thank you for having me over the course of the regular season and the playoffs. It was great talking phootball with you. I did have fun indeed! Can't wait to talk about my new book Object of My Obsession with you soon! 

Me: Jeff, I will see you back here in a few weeks. Take care.

A woman asked the pharmacist, "Does Viagra work?" He smiled and replied, "It does." The woman then said, "Can you get it over the counter?" The pharmacist smiled even more, held up two fingers and said, "Yes, if I take two." 

The 113th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Anthony Daniels will be the guest on the Phile next Monday. Okay, so you know I live in Florida, right? Well, there's stuff that happens in Florida that happens no where else in the universe. So, once again here is...

Marriage is hard, we all know that. The fighting, the yelling, the constant bickering, it’s just messy. But, you know what’s even messier? Throwing Taco Bell burritos everywhere! Yes, what is up with people and their obsession with throwing Taco Bell food everywhere? I get it, their tacos and burritos are so lightweight that you can throw it with no problem across the room, but launching them at a person? You better think twice! Turns out this dynamic duo tried to solve an argument the only way they could: by going to Taco Bell for lunch. But, according to authorities, the married couple’s argument turned into an all-out food fight, and well, Taco Bell wasn’t too happy about it! The couple, from Florida of course, were arguing about their son. Forty-nine-year-old Victor Fosser, the father, had told his son he needed to move out of their home as soon as possible. Why? No idea, but his wife wasn’t too happy about it. So, like any man would he decided to taunt her about it by dangling a burrito in front of her face and made fun of her for being upset. His wife, 49-year-old Pamela Ellen Fosser, who wasn’t too amused with her husband, grabbed the burrito and threw it behind her on the floor. Surprised by the flying burrito, the husband then picked up all the remains from the floor and smashed them right into her face, “causing some to go up into her nose.” Yes, marriage at it’s finest, ladies and gents! Unfortunately, it turns out Taco Bell wasn’t too fond of the people ruining their burrito creation, so they called the cops. Fosser was immediately arrested and charged with battery…for smashing a burrito in his wife’s face. The horror, the shame! Try explaining that next time you want to get a job. The wife, who I presume was taunting him even more after his arrest, told authorities that she loved her husband despite him being a burrito thrower. The couple has been married for two and a half years and is in counseling “because they do not know how to argue like a married couple.” Yup, that explains it. I don’t know, it sounds like this couple has something going for them. Keep doing what you’re doing, Fosser’s. Give this couple free Taco Bell for life!

Phact 1. Scientists in Berlin asked adults to play "Super Mario 64" over a period of two months for 30 minutes a day. The group showed increases of grey matter, demonstrating “the direct causal link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase.”

Phact 2. We sometimes forget why we have entered a room because passing through a door creates an "event boundary" causing the brain to file away what we were just thinking about. 

Phact 3. The Jay Treaty, signed in 1794, provides that American Indians may travel freely across the Canadian-U.S. border. Native Indians born in Canada are entitled to freely enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and immigration. 

Phact 4. Parents of Down Syndrome children are less likely to divorce. 

Phact 5. In an effort to reduce drunk driving, every New Years Eve The American Automobile Association (AAA) will tow your car and give you a lift home for free, even if you’re not a member. 

I'm so happy about this. Today's pheatured guest is an American actor. He gained recognition in 1999 for providing motion capture and voice of the character of Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars franchise. I love that character! Please welcome to the Phile... Ahmed Best!

Me: Hey, Ahmed, welcome to the Phile, man. I'm so excited you are here!! I 100% mean it. 

Ahmed: Hello, how are you? 

Me: Not too bad. So, before you got the role of Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars movie what were you doing? 

Ahmed: I was in a show in New York City called Stomp. Stomp is really where I started my professional career on stage. I was doing Stomp mostly in New York then I was on tour. I was doing Stomp in San Francisco when Robin Gurland who casted The Phantom Menace saw me on stage and asked me to audition. So during that time I was on stage every day doing Stomp every day. I was either traveling or in New York City doing the show every night. This was a big change, I went from a small theater on Broadway to giant sets in England doing Star Wars. It was a whole other world. 

Me: This wasn't going from Broadway to just some Hollywood movie, the was going from Broadway to a freaking Star Wars movie, man. What was going through your head? 

Ahmed: Well, I've always been a Star Wars fan and A New Hope was the first movie I ever saw, so growing up I had the sheets, I had the curtain, I had the pillow cases, I was mad over it just like every young child was at that time so Star Wars was a big phenomenon so I grew up with the movies. I grew up in the Bronx in New York City and never thought I'd have a shot of being in one of these things so it was really surreal, it was a dream come true, it was all of these things. I thought it was going to be the springboard of doing more things. That it was going to be something that would propel me into actually being able to make a difference and make a change to my career and to my life. 

Me: What was it like playing Jar Jar? 

Ahmed: Being Jar Jar and doing this, this was the first time it was ever done, the CGI, the live action was ever done in a major motion picture by a co-lead character. So this was like a ground breaking role, it was ground breaking technology, it was something that George Lucas was very passionate about, and we all collaborated to make possible, so I was really excited to be a part of that. 

Me: I have this cool picture of you in the Jar Jar suit...

Me: What did you think of Jar Jar when you were working on the film? 

Ahmed: You know I really loved him, and I always said the character of Jar Jar and the way I played him was he'll never let you down. Whatever situation that I was in regardless of how challenging it was my intent for Jar Jar was he has your back, he knows he's not a Jedi and he's not the most coordinated or the most graceful thing in the world. But he will do his best and try his hardest to make sure that whatever was going to be done was being done. That's how I approached him and I loved him for that. There was this innocence about Jar Jar that I really dug, and I think a lot of children identified with him because he was just trying to help, he was just trying to be good, do his best to make the world a better place. 

Me: Okay, so, I loved The Phantom Menace, I still do. I waited nine hours on line in the sun to get tickets. I also loved Jar Jar, but when the movie came out a lot of people didn't. So, when did you get the inkling that Jar Jar wasn't well received? 

Ahmed: At one of the first press screenings, we do those press junkets when we do movies, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of reporters and I starting getting these questions I never really was prepared for or expected. 

Me: Like what kind of questions? 

Ahmed: The one that really jumped it off was a reporter asked me if Jar Jar was gay. And I never assigned a type of sexual or gender specificity to the character because he's a 7 foot amphibian. He lives on a planet underwater that existed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way so I really wasn't focused on that. For me Jar Jar was an animal. I didn't know how Gungans reproduced or had a sexual preference. I didn't go that far, is it kinda shocked me and it took me aback, And then that's when all of a sudden the floodgates started opening the ideas that Jar Jar was some kind of racial stereotype. 

Me: Did people comment on the way Jar Jar spoke? 

Ahmed: Yeah, the Jamaican accent thing kinda upset me because being West Indian and proud of being West Indian, for someone to think how Jar Jar spoke was Jamaican was not only ignorant to me. It really just came from a place of sensationalism and racism, then all of a sudden I was just inundated with that and I couldn't escape it. 

Me: So, stupid Star Wars fans started attacking you, Ahmed. This was before Twitter or any social media, so what kind of stuff was happening? 

Ahmed: This was the first kind of large scale example of "media trolling' on-line. I talk about this in the one man show, about how there was no Twitter, there was no Facebook. There wasn't even like Wix or any of these sights where they had to have elements like Wordpress, elements to make websites. These people programmed this. They took their time and jumped in with some straight up html 5 and decided to do some real string opinionated websites. 

Me: Haha. They had to learn to code to insult you. Right? 

Ahmed: Yeah, they were straight up zeroes and ones. They had to put zeroes and ones in succession. They cared! 

Me: You almost have to admire the commitment, right? 

Ahmed: Yeah, my God, this took some time. They had a lot of desk top publishing programmers, they had to pay for those back in those days. There were no subscriptions, so it was really intense the amount of hate. As soon as that happened back in those days in the 90s... I sound like my dad. "Back in my days." Back in those days in the 90s websites were the big thing. Everybody was talking about websites as if they ere discovered new particles or elements in the universe. So when people put these websites up it's when traditional media picked it up. 

Me: You also got this shit in your day to day life as well, right? 

Ahmed: Yeah, I got it on the streets walking around, I got it in email, hate mail. A lot of it came to LucasFilm and it came to George, calling George a racist and all of these terrible, terrible things. I just wanted to disappear but Star Wars is everywhere. There was no land I could go to. The thing that was hard about it was people knew it was me and they DIDN'T know it was me. It affected my personal life but no one looked at me as if to go "let me just see if this actor could do the work." It was just right at me personally. It wasn't at the work, it wasn't at the character, it just came at for me. Once this industry looks at someone who is invaluable they get pretty much blacklisted, get ostracized. That's what happened. 

Me: It's been over 20 years, Ahmed, so why are you talking about it now? 

Ahmed: A few summer's ago I was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with my son, and I hadn't walked across the bridge and looked out at the spot on the bridge where I almost jumped off in a very long time. Walking across the bridge with him, I looked at him and I thought to myself, "I almost didn't have you." I thought of ending my life. I really struck me, that moment really struck me. Although it was 20 years ago emotionally all of it come back like it was that day. Being there with him made me really reflect on that time and how much it hurt. But it also made me think about how I got through it. Also it made me think about how I brought myself out of this thing and I decided to keep going and that brought me to having my son who is the love of my life. And there had been a lot in the news at that time about depression and about people who had taken their lives. And Anthony Bourdain had just taken his life just a short time before that. That really affected me because I understand that feeling. And so I felt as if now it was enough time to start talking about this. To recognize the fact that no, although we as performers, entertainers, actors, musicians, we are in this public position our LIVES aren't public. We all have private lives and just because we could be seen by a great deal of people at one time doesn't mean that we are completely emotionless. I feel things, I'm super sensitive the it comes to what I do. And doing what we do is extremely personal, putting our heart and soul up there on the screen, that's our job. Our job is to be emotional and when I open up myself as a human being and my job is to be emotional and to be vulnerable that doesn't really turn off. I need those things in order to continue and I didn't realize how hurt I was from the experience until 2018. That's when I said I need to start talking about this, I need to start getting this out, I need to make sure that actors, other people, especially black people... there's a stigma with mental health with black people. Black actors have such an incredibly difficult ladder to climb when we consider to take this business on. 

Me: Hmmm... why is that? 

Ahmed: For a bunch of reason. One of the main reasons is because there really isn't enough material. There isn't enough for us to do. So we are really just battling over the same one thing. And here comes this thing that says "you can be not only a black actor but you can be an actor, a collaborator, a filmmaker, and create these characters that look like they're from another planet." Then all if a sudden the racism creeps into that. The hardest part of all of this was I'm the first actor, and the first black male actor to do this... and I was the last. There has been no other since me. That 20 years, the whole part of this industry that has been complexly severed from black actors because what has happened to me. And I feel like it's the time to bring that to life, and to make it known that this thing happened. There was an affect that went beyond me. It was greater than me. 

Me: Ahmed, I've got to ask did George Lucas have anything to say to you when you were going through all this shit? 

Ahmed: Yeah, he did. And I have to say George was always a great friend and a great human being. Yeah, he called me when things really started getting really bad, he called me on my Motorola Startac which I loved and I still love to this day. I remember sitting in Washington Square Park in the Village in New York City and we had this two hour conversation about what was going on and about he went through this before. Especially with the first, 4, 5 and 6 back in the 70s. He went through this with Chewbacca, he went through it with Yoda, the Ewoks and all this stuff. So he was really supportive and really let me know that this will all change. He said twenty years from now this would be a different conversation and he was right about that. Yeah, he's always been supportive but also I think he was hurt too. I don't think people really think about that and think about how the people who create these things, they put all of themselves into it as well. We worked really hard on bringing Jar Jar to life. I can't stretch this point enough, there were thousand of people who made Jar Jar. It wasn't just me, it was George's idea and I embodied the character but the army of people whirring this type of character to life spent years doing this thing. 

Me: When you went to Star Wars Celebration in Chicago a few years ago, when you walked out on stage you were greeted by thunderous applause, by everyone loving you. How did you feel with that, Ahmed? 

Ahmed: I was very surprised to be honest. I was very nervous to do Star Wars Celebration. I haven't done once since Phantom Menace, since Denver, Colorado. It's always been difficult because a lot of times I get people to tell me how much they hated me. A lot of people feel free to do that, they come up to me and tell me how awful Jar Jar was and how he ruined everything. I didn't want to deal with that. That had been my experience for such a long time that when I got to Celebration I was actually quite surprised that it all shifted. 

Me: So, why do you think people changed on how they feel about Jar Jar? 

Ahmed: I think what had happened was the kids that grew up with Jar Jar are now adults. And they really identified with him growing up. That was always there intention, that he was always intended for kids. It was guys my age and older who didn't like that. They didn't like the fact that George was setting up a 20 year fan base. They felt like he was wandering to the kids and he didn't make "their" movie. I think a lot of there backlash came from there but now those kids are adults and the defend the prequels and they defend Jar Jar like he is theres. I think a lot of them were there at Celebration in Chicago, and they're changing the narrative, they're changing the idea and they're changing the story and they see the story of Jar Jar in a much deeper and a much greater way. 

Me: Well said. Ahmed, I always loved Jar Jar. Thanks for being on the Phile. Please come back again. 

Ahmed: Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Jeff Trelewicz and of course Ahmed Best. The Phile will be back on Monday with another Star Wars actor... Anthony Daniels. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon