Daily News from New York, New York • 50

JJaiir Wforss Fsssm IbllaiDDD Ahmed Best's role as offbeat alien triggers a hot debate iitzf. a if' ft" i -lu. I I i i-wVX 17 Brookfyn's Ahmed Best (inset) says the character of Jar Jar Binks (above) shouldn't alienate "Star Wars" fans. The amphibian is for children, he says: "The kids love him." By RON GUVENS DAILY NEWS FEATURE WRITER rou re in the biggest movie of the year. What more, you're playing the most talked-about character in the character is just plain irritating, which led to the creation of a "Jar Jar Must Die" Web site.

But others see the character's loping shuffle and vaguely Caribbean speech as racist. Newsweek referred to Jar Jar as "a kind of extraterrestrial Stepin Fetchit." "I can't even begin to explain the ridiculousness of this," says Best, sitting in front of the Tillie's of Brooklyn coffee shop in Fort Greene. "Jar Jar is a kids' character. He's an amphibian. The kids absolutely love him." Plus, he says, "My family comes from the Caribbean Barbados and St.

Thomas and I don't know anybody from the Caribbean who talks like that." Best himself was born at Roosevelt Hospital and grew up in the Soundview neighborhood in the Bronx. Best's family moved to Maple-wood, N.J. His dad is a cameraman for ABC, working everything from news to "Good Morning America" to the Indy 500 this past weekend. His mom is an artist who let him, a twin brother and an older sister all follow their creative impulses. "The arts were always around and always encouraged by my parents," Best remembers.

"But I kind of think it was in the back of their minds that, "Well, let them do it, but we hope they don't take it But Best did take it seriously, turning down a full athletic scholarship to Syracuse University he was a champion high-jumper to make music in the biggest movie of the year. And nobody has the slightest idea who you are. But that doesn't keep people from being mad at you. This is life as 25-year-old Ahmed Best currently knows it. A Fort Greene, Brooklyn, resident.

Best is Jar Jar Binks in "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace." Jar Jar, an amphibian from the planet Naboo, has become a lightning rod for criticism of the fourth George Lucas outer-space flick. Some fans think the city. He gigged with various bands, did a little theater "Off-Off-Off-Of Broadway," he says and kept on pushing. One band, Jazzhole, recorded a few albums and toured up and down the East Coast. Best also did some work backing up The Fugees and his high-school classmate, Lauryn Hill.

But his big break was getting a job in the percussive Off-Broadway show "Stomp," which took him to San Francisco, where he was "discovered" by people working on "Phantom Menace." Working on the movie would have been a lot easier if he had been playing a human character instead of a digitally created one. First, Best had to be on the set to stand where Jar Jar would be seen in certain shots. Videotape of Best's facial movements was used to inspire Jar Jar's expressions. Later, with Lucas and a small crew in a room, Best put a skintight suit with computer sensors on his lanky frame (6-foot-2, 165 to 170 pounds). He would pantomime all of Jar Jar's movements except for the amphibian's big floppy ears and extremely long tongue and the data from the sensors were translated into the character's onscreen actions.

"People don't realize that Jar Jar was just a drawing," says Best. "Nobody really had an idea about anything. George came to me and said, 'Honestly, we don't know what this is going to be like. We'll kind of leave it up to Which was great, because I was like, You don't even know me, and you're giving me all this Jar Jar's distinctive walk, for example, is "a kind of mix between a lanky lurch and a forward glide, like in break dancing," he says. Best hasn't been approached by fans who recognize him from the movie, but those who know him have been flabbergasted by the similarities between him and Jar Jar.

"I get calls from people who say, 'Oh my God, it's he says. Best is not the first prominent "Star Wars" actor to labor in obscurity. Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and David Prowse (Darth Vader) know what that's like. It's not clear if he'll be back for the next installment, "Episode II." Best was only signed for "Phantom Menace," for which he was paid "more than $100 and less than a million. I'm not rich, by any means." He has a showcase with his band for Columbia Records this week, but no other movie offers have come along yet.

And so far, no Jar Jar groupies. "Everybody says, Wow, "Star Wars," you must be getting girls," says Best, who has a steady girlfriend. "Like I did 'Star Wars' to get girls. But I'm not that kind of guy. I'm not a swinger.

"Besides, I don't think Jar Jar would turn them on. I think if I was Darth Maul, I'd probably get more girls." Jarring messages cloud the internet a Jar Jar Binks has inspired a vast difference of opinion, much of it expressed in profane postings on the Web. Here are a few unedited, G-rated excerpts from the the "Jar Jar Binks Hate JAR JAR Killer: "I want Jar Jar dead. Not just normal everyday dead mind you, I want a long drawn-out violent and painful death and I want Lucas to write it into Episode 2. 1 want Jar Jar skin seats in my living room." Landon: "George Lucas is the god of film.

I hold him at one of the highest pod i urns ever even higher then Francis Ford Coppala and on the same podium as Speilberg so I now ask him, why God did you damage your creation with Jar Jar? I loved episode 1 but every time this enoying thing opened his mouth, I wanted to throw up as with the rest of the Gungens. I have seen" the movie 6 times and he still kills me. This caracter was made for children and it is almost a sellout effort on Lucases part." BadMoo: "Celebrity Deathmatch: JAR JAR BINKS vs THE EWOKS. Meesa think someone gonna die." Krash: "OK, so Jar Jar is not your favorite character, in any movie, granted. But if it werent for this creature, the movie would be completely dull and heartless.

If you havent noticed, the 'STAR WARS' movies are Enlighten yourselves, enjoy the movie for what it is a work of fiction that tells an incredible story of good versus evil, not for a play on one man's view of humanity. I'm sure that was the farthest thing from his mind, and it should be the farthest thing from yours!".