Q&A: ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ director Sam Raimi talks about inspirations behind film

With ingenuity and some magic spells, a wizard must stand up for the land of Oz against evil witches who have their own designs. The repeatedly revamped story of Oz has been reincarnated in the supersaturated “Oz the Great and Powerful” by director Sam Raimi. Raimi, known for his blockbuster “Spider-Man” trilogy and cult classic “Evil Dead” brings an old favorite back to the screen to tell the story of the Wizard before Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz. Daily Bruin’s Jacob Klein spoke with Sam Raimi on a college conference call about the inspiration behind the latest twist on a classic and his own filmmaking experience.

Daily Bruin: What inspired your version of the world of Oz?

Sam Raimi: Well I drew it all from the great author L. Frank Baum, his vision of Oz, that he had written about in 14-some books and W.W. Denslow, the original illustrator of the Baum books. I was also inspired by the great classic movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” and a lot of the visuals of the (movie). But more than the visuals, what inspired me about the movie was the characters’ sense of love that they have for each other. How friends come together and that very soulful message that comes at the end of the picture when we learn from the Wizard that we (all) have within us the thing to make us complete if we only recognize it.

DB: What was it about these actors that makes them perfect for their respective roles?

SR: I was looking for that actor or actress that had the qualities of the character they’re going to portray. That’s something that I thought couldn’t be faked by an actor, no matter how fine they were, because when the camera gets in close, really close to the face of the actor or actress, the audience knows whether they’re true or not.

DB: What was the most challenging part of working on the film?

SR: The most challenging part was there are many characters, many back stories and many interconnected relationship tales that have to be juggled. What part should I keep? What part should I cut? And what part would be most effective if I let the audience use their own imagination to fill in the blanks? Because that’s really the secret: letting the audience participate. It’s not spoon-feeding them everything, but giving them just enough tools to finish building the bridge and make them their own collaborator.

DB: What are you most excited about for audiences to take away from seeing the film?

SR: Ideally I’d like them to feel uplifted. The best thing that stories could do for us is reverberate with truth and show us the way in a way that is not pushy or preachy. There’s a simple beauty in loving another person and friends coming together, in being selfless.

DB: You attended Michigan State University before dropping out to make “Evil Dead.” Why did you decide to do so? How did that help your career?

SR: I thought that I would be one day dragged back to my father’s furniture and appliance store, because a kid from Detroit shouldn’t be making movies in Hollywood, it just wasn’t talked about then. I decided to do the outrageous and drop … because I wanted to become a filmmaker and that movie, “Evil Dead,” was the movie I made. So it wasn’t how did “Evil Dead” help me with my career, it’s that “Evil Dead” was my goal. I wanted to become a feature filmmaker and that is the fruit of my labors.

DB: What advice would you give to aspiring directors looking to forward their careers after college?

SR: Be directing now, not after college. Just keep shooting and you will be a filmmaker. If you wait for some after-school thing, or sometime in the future to start your career, that waiting will expand. You just do it now and you will always be a director.

Email Klein at [email protected].