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"Camelot star Joseph Fiennes has suggested that Merlin is a mixture of Obi-Wan Kenobi and former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Fiennes told the Radio Times that he wanted to portray the character in a slightly unusual way. &amp;quot;I wanted to get away from that iconic look of a wizard with the pointy hat and staff and long beard,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I think of him as a mix between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Donald Rumsfeld. This sort of great, machiavellian puppet master behind the scenes, who takes this young boy - Arthur - and grooms him for power. Theirs is like an Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker relationship.&amp;quot; Fiennes also suggested that he didn&amp;#039;t want to focus too much on Merlin as a wizard. &amp;quot;I felt I could get more of a handle on him as a great political manipulator,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;For him, magic is like abusing a class-A drug - not that I&amp;#039;ve done that - it can take over and begins to control and condemn you. This is a young Merlin and he&amp;#039;s exploring those powers, learning to understand them. He&amp;#039;s developing into the Merlin that we know.&amp;quot; Fiennes has previously admitted that he was initially unsure about taking on a role in Camelot but has described each of the episodes as a &amp;quot;mini film&amp;quot;.  Camelot begins on Saturday at 9pm on Channel 4. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a323360/joseph-fiennes-merlin-like-obi-wan-rumsfeld/>