"I don't like danger," confesses Willow's David Joseph Steinberg. "In real life, I'm good to my friends and loyal, but when it comes to pain, physical pain, I'm just not into it."

As Meegosh, however, he is Willow Ufgood's (Warwick Davis) best friend, accompanying the film's hero on a fateful journey into a mystical world of sorcery and evil, brotherhood and magic. But after their confrontation with the brownies and Cherlindrea, Willow sends Meegosh back to their village, leaving the would-be wizard to undertake the mission of rescuing a baby princess (mostly) alone. Except for a coda, Meegosh's role ends there, and Steinberg's own inspiring tale begins.

Steinberg (right) may not like danger, but Meegosh braves the perils outside the safety of his village, to accompany--at least part way--Willow (Warwick Davis) on his journey with the baby princess.

"Meegosh is a friendly, genuinely nice person. He sticks up for his buddy," Steinberg says. "He's a true friend. He's not quite certain why Willow has decided to take this awesome responsibility and burden upon himself. But Meegosh isn't one to question, and he respects Willow's guts. Meegosh volunteers to go on this adventure. Me, personally, like I said, I don't like danger. I would probably back away."

Steinberg defends the barrage of accusations that Willow is a retread of old ideas and twice (or more)-told tales. "It's a classic storyline," notes Steinberg, "and they usually work. Every movie you see is in some way based on a basic skeleton. There are only a few original stories. It's that skeleton, and your creativity and how you dress it all up that makes it a hit or a flop. I think Willow will raise the fantasy genre to another level."

To have a featured role in a George Lucas/Ron Howard mega-budget production is, Steinberg describes, "an honor and a privilege. Ron has the patience of a saint. He had a way of making it very clear to me what this was all about. With his direction and my understanding of it, everything worked out fine. The special effects, the blue screen, were all exciting. It was definitely a whole lesson in filmmaking for me."

Many first-time actors might feel understandably nervous. Awe better suited Steinberg. "I would be on the set and every once in a while it would hit me: 'Wow! This is incredible. All the people, the cameras.' In a scene we shot in New Zealand, they had 200 horsemen going through the hills. They went on forever," he says breathlessly. "As far as you could see, there were horsemen and men marching. And to think this was a movie! There were times I got so caught up that it was almost reality. There was no cheating that."

There was also no cheating Steinberg's favorite on-set moment. The upcoming scene required Meegosh to scramble and slip helplessly into a murky pit, a trap laid by the dreaded brownies. The pit having been prepped, Howard stressed realism. Don't jump, he told Steinberg, don't anticipate. "We did it once and I sort of anticipated," Steinberg recalls with a sheepish grin. "Ron said, 'No, no, no. Sorry, Dave, you jumped there.' They set it up again and I tried to figure out how not to anticipate it. I decided to look in front of me. That way I wouldn't know exactly where it was.

"Meegosh is a friendly, genuinely nice person," comments Steinberg. "He sticks up for his buddy," Willow (Davis).

"So, I'm looking and looking and looking, and, unplanned, my feet shot up, vrooom, right into the air. It was too funny. This was a classic fall. I'm thinking I screwed up again but everybody roared and Ron loved it."

Howard cast Steinberg in Willow after catching a performance of Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular, in which Steinberg portrayed the lead elf. In addition to college stage performances, the 23-year-old actor has appeared in an episode of The Equalizer. Although he enjoyed his Willow experiences, Steinberg is a theater person at heart. "My training has been in very legitimate theater. Most of my performances up to this point have been on the stage. I really love the immediate audience response. Film is different," he stresses, pausing to funnel his thoughts into words. "I like how film is such a group effort. There are so many people doing all sorts of jobs. Then, you finally see the end product and you would never know there were 50 people doing lights, pushing refreshment carts and everything. You see the film and it creates reality."

A harsh reality for Steinberg is his height: three feet, one inch. From a little person's standpoint, people with small minds cause big problems. Steinberg, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, is frequently noticed on the street due to his height. "People stop and stare and make comments. It bothers me only if I have an off day," he says seriously. "It's not like I'm neurotic about it. If someone stares, I'm not like, 'Oh, God, I can't deal.' If I did that, I would have no tear ducts left. After 23 years, you get used to it."

Ironically, Steinberg's adopted parents met in 1964 through Little People of America, an organization established by his Willow co-star Billy Barty (STARLOG #130) to support socially and emotionally its nearly 6,000 members. "They started dating and finally married. The organization helps bring people together. You can meet people your own size. That's not to say that you can't date average [size] people, but it's harder," Steinberg says. "Billy has elevated the potential of little people. Instead of just being circus freaks, we can follow legit acting."

Steinberg's parents understood their son's frustrations, having weathered similar dilemmas. "They would work through things with me," the actor says. "They said, 'You can do anything anyone else can if you just set your mind to it.' I rode a bicycle. I swam. In the ninth grade, I even played touch football. They said, 'If you want to do it, do it.' "

Steinberg's ultimate goal is for people to look past his height, and respect him as a person and an actor.

Though his parents bolstered his spirits with encouragement, self-confidence took years to develop. "Many people want to go back to grade school. I don't. Kids are cute, but they can also be very mean," Steinberg notes with a trace of bitterness. "It got better as I got older. Before high school, I believed everyone else. My mom would be teaching me to ride a bike and people would say, 'Ooh, that's cruel. Don't do that.' They didn't get it. She wasn't cruel, they were.

"If it was up to them, they would have me sit on a couch all day and do nothing. If that were the case and that was my background, I wouldn't be sitting here today. Because of what my parents did for me, that's who I am now. Being with myself and being small, I learned to work with it and use it to my advantage. I developed my personality because I wasn't going to get it by being strong and big and bullying people. I had to win friends another way.

"I developed a sense of humor and I had to be outgoing, too. When they first meet a little person, people are sometimes taken aback. They're afraid of what to say. They don't want to hurt you, so they would rather not speak. I have to make that first step," Steinberg continues. "I go and say, 'Hi, how ya doin?' Then, I have to take my size lightly, not to make fun of myself, but just to say, 'Hey, it's OK. I know I'm short.' "

Towards the end of high school, Steinberg considered radio broadcasting as a career path. In college, he joined the campus radio station, delivering news. "I was in a booth talking to myself, with no one to relate to. After a few weeks," Steinberg recalls, "I said, 'I don't want to do this.' Then, I was cast in a play and I loved it. My professor was honest and said, 'You have potential and in many ways, you might have more of a chance than anyone else here. You'll be up for parts that others won't be.' But there's the other hand, too, and he said, 'You won't be up for parts others will. So, you must decide how dedicated you're going to be.' Acting is a profession that if you're not into it wholeheartedly, you're not in it. You must be committed.

"So, I took his advice."