Ahmed Best deplores the omission of Jar Jar in WIRED’s ‘history of performance-capture technology’

The article and the video in question, from WIRED:

“WATCH ANDY SERKIS GIVE YOU A HISTORY OF PERFORMANCE-CAPTURE TECHNOLOGY

FOR MORE THAN 15 years, Andy Serkis has been Hollywood’s go-to performance-capture guy, playing such digitally enhanced characters as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series, Caesar in the recent Planet of the Apes films, and even King Kong himself. But the 53-year-old actor—whose directorial debut, Breathe, hit theaters earlier this month—believes there are still plenty of misconceptions about one of filmmaking’s most crucial innovations. “It’s not just about mimicking behavior,” Serkis says. “This is about creating a character.”

And if anyone could tell people a thing or two about performance-capture tech, it’s Serkis. In fact, he could teach a master class. In the video above he traces the history of the technology, from its early days as a videogame innovation to the glory days of Gollum to this summer’s stunning War for the Planet of the Apes, perhaps the most impressive merger yet between high-end technology and big-hearted performance. […]”

Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels, reacted on Twitter.

The erasure of @ahmedbest's pioneering work as Jar Jar Binks from this "history of motion caputure" is at best revisionist, possibly racist. https://t.co/ovEM5rIr1x

— Aram Sinnreich 🗽🎶 (@aram) October 26, 2017

I don’t know how to retweet this and not sound bitter, but I feel I have been forgotten. No disrespect to the great @andyserkis https://t.co/4F3VBPV8Aj

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 27, 2017

1) thread: Thanks for the love today especially the Star Wars fans. Jar Jar is bigger than just me or my performance. As much as we actors

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

2) are on the front line when it comes to the success or the failure of characters we play, what's more important is the accomplishment of

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

3) bringing the work to the screen. Jar Jar helped create The workflow, iteration process and litmus test for all CGI characters to this day

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

4) on some days the code was being written in real time as I was moving. To deny Jar Jar's place in film history is to deny the hundreds of

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

5) VFX technicians, animators, code writers and producers their respect. People like John Knoll, Rob Coleman @arfkeldo and scores of others

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

6) who I worked with for two years after principal photography was ended to bring these movies to you. There's a joke I like to use when

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017

7) talking about this stuff, Jar Jar walked so Gollum could run. Gollum ran so the Na'vi could fly. Thanks for lifting me up today.

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) October 28, 2017