KZ: What drew you to Wolfboy and the Everything Factory?

J: This project came out of the brain of an artist named Toff Mazery, and it was him that drew me to the project. Sometimes you really just want to put your faith in somebody and let them go do their thing, and that’s what happened with Wolfboy. I knew Toff and I just said to him, ‘Hey, you should have a show. What would you do if you could do anything, what would it be?’ and this is what he came out with. He said, ‘I’d like to do something that a younger audience could really like, but then adults would also like, because that’s a lot of what I like’. He really likes watching things like that. I do too, by the way. Some of my favourite things of all time are theoretically for kids, but there’s a wisdom and a beauty in them that transcends any age bracket. Dr Seuss are some of my favourite books and Adventure Time is a great animated show. It’s aimed at kids but beloved by people of all ages, and this is what he had in his mind; this idea that Wolfboy was sort of like him, the Everything Factory is sort of a metaphor for how he views art and creativity, and I just put my faith in Toff and tried to support him and was so impressed with all that he came up with.

KZ: What can we look forward to in the second season of Wolfboy and the Everything Factory?

J: Season two develops in a really cool and unexpected way, because in a lot of fantasy storytelling like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, you have a big bad guy and the bad guy is just evil. The good guys just have to beat the bad guys and that’s what it is. In Wolfboy season one, you do meet a big bad guy; her name is Nyx and you meet her army of Disarrays and you learn about her realm, the Disarray realm, where everything is evil and bad. In season two, the Sprytes have to learn that in fact, the Disarrays aren’t all evil, and they’re a lot like us in a lot of ways. Without their destruction, there could be no creation. I think it says a lot about how sometimes we’re brought up to think that those people over there, whoever they are, are bad. They’re different to us, trying to make the world a worse place, and we just have to overcome them. When in fact when you get to know somebody from that other group, you find that they’re more similar to you than you might have been brought up to understand. Wolfboy, Xandra and Sprout make a new friend, Seth, who is a Disarray, not a Spryte. A Disarray. Not all Disarrays are evil, but Seth is not evil. Wolfboy goes to the realm of the Disarrays – he was taught he could never do that, it’s a terrible place to be – but he finds that it’s actually different than what he was told. The way that story unfolds is quite different to the way that Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings unfolds, and I think nowadays it’s a pretty important thing to understand. Whoever those other people are, they’re probably a lot more similar to you than you might imagine.

KZ: What do you think Professor Luxcraft brings to the wonderful world of wizards?

J: Besides sandwiches… Luxcraft is a wizard but he’s also a teacher and in particular, an art teacher. I think teachers are not appreciated enough in this world. If you’re a student reading this, one thing I would say to you is – I’ll admit, not all teachers are super good teachers, but when you have a teacher that’s good, that is such a precious thing. I remember the teachers from when I was young, the ones who were really good, who really cared, who were really able to inspire me – they’re people I still think of today. Now I’m a dad, it’s such a glorious relationship to have a teacher that you really connect with, the way that Wolfboy connects with Luxcraft. If you ever get a chance, if you have a teacher that you think is really great and that you look forward to seeing, and you have fun in their classes when they’re teaching you, say thank you or tell them that you appreciate them. Actors, athletes, and other entertainers get a lot of attention – more than we deserve. I’m an actor, we get more attention than we should get. You know who should get a lot more attention? Teachers. To me, Luxcraft is an embodiment of a great teacher.

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