Wizards was my homage to Tolkien in the American idiom. I had read Tolkien, understood Tolkien, and wanted to do a sort of fantasy for American kids, and that was Wizards.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In a way, we are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard.
Well, put it like this, if you're not a kid, you're a wizard.
Narnia, Middle-earth and New York were my three fantasy universes when I was a kid.
'Harry Potter' achieved a very special act of actual magic: it made it completely acceptable for an adult to carry around, read and enjoy a children's book.
'Lord of the Rings' was my jam. I was so depressed when I realized that I couldn't live in Middle-earth. And I was so sad when I was eleven and didn't get a letter from Hogwarts saying that I was going to be a wizard!
When I was a little kid - and even still - I loved magic tricks. When I saw how movies got made - at least had a glimpse when I went on the Universal Studios tour with my grandfather, I remember feeling like this was another means by which I could do magic.
Everyone in the '80s was reading Tolkien; he invented this whole medieval fantasy genre.
I loved fantasy, but I particularly loved the stories in which somebody got out of where they were and into somewhere better - as in the 'Chronicles Of Narnia,' 'The Wizard Of Oz,' 'The Phantom Tollbooth,' the 'Dungeons & Dragons' cartoon on Saturday morning in the '80s.
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.
I seem to be quite drawn to the medieval, magical fantasies, as it were.
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