EXCLUSIVE!

Terry Gilliam, director of the much anticipated, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus discusses the film, the support site, critics, globe trotting press junkets, and shares some exclusive behind the scenes stories in this pre-AFI Film Festival red carpet interview with Theresa Shell and Christa Woomer of The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus Support Site .

By Theresa Shell

The first thing you should know about Terry Gilliam is that despite the fact that he professes to be a grumpy old curmudgeon, he is a very, very nice guy. He is soft spoken, friendly, funny, intelligent (though he professes to be dumb), kind and very honest. And, though he may not see it himself, he’s quite courageous. He stands up for what he believes and will not be compromised. This is evident throughout our meeting and I find it inspiring and refreshing. I quickly find that Terry Gilliam is what he is and issues no apologies for it. In other words, he’s real. Just my kind of person. No wonder I’m so drawn to his work.

As we sit on the patio of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on a beautiful November day, I find that the nervousness that was consuming me on my way to the meeting has quickly been replaced by feeling that I have just sat down with an old friend. Gilliam has a way at putting one at ease that can only come from many years experience in dealing with interviews and fans. The interview is very relaxed and laid back, but he is much more keen on what’s going on than I am. When my recorder clicks off for the tape to be turned over, he alerts me to it because he notes that I didn’t even hear it. He says, “You might want to turn the tape over, I heard it click off.” He then grins and explains, “You get used to things like that when you’ve done so many of these things.” It doesn’t take me long talking to him to realize, whether he was one of my favorite directors, or a guy on the street, I like this man.

I pull out my ancient dictaphone recorder and attempt at my advanced age (54) to read the tiny buttons to find which one will turn it on. I have forgotten my reading glasses. As my daughter, Christa, leans over to show me which button to push for record (with her cursedly youthful eyes!) Terry and I are both laughing because we suffer the same malady of reading things up close.

Theresa Shell: I guess I’ve got that right. My arms are getting too short (they both giggle).

Terry Gilliam: (picks his glasses up on a cord around his neck.) This arm was ripped off my glasses a couple of days ago and now I just have to…(he puts the broken glasses on which set precariously on his nose. Both laughing.)

TS: You poor little thing.

TG: Now I’ve got to work with it this way. To read anything.

TS: That’s ok, don’t feel bad. I’m turning senile; I left the notebook with my questions in the car. But I’ve decided we were going to dazzle you with our technical skills instead, then you won’t notice I don’t have my notes with me.

TG: Uh-oh

TS: (Showing my plethora of technical wizardry) We have our little purple camera, our eight year old video camera for tonight and THIS (holds up a dictaphone) from my boss.

TG: That’s ok. My video camera is even older than yours.

TS: Wow, I’m really feeling bad feel bad for both of us now. (Both start laughing)

At this point, Terry asks me why I started the site. I explain to him that I write indies myself and know the battle these films face to get seen. It’s been very hard to deal with that on my level, but when I saw the issues facing Dr. Parnassus in March, that was it. We were talking my favorite director here. This was Terry Gilliam for God’s sake. It was time for me to speak up then. If we don’t start speaking up we’re going to lose our beautiful indies and future generations will be robbed of them. They’re going to be eaten up by the big studio machine. We’re the paying audience and we should be heard. We pay for the tickets. He agrees with me completely on this.

TS: I’m an old hippie. I believe in standing up for what you believe and grouping together as one big voice and demanding change. We changed the world once.

TG: (Smiles and nods) Yes, we did.

TS: I believe we can do it again.

TG: You have more faith than I do.

TS: No, that’s not true. You’re here for Dr. Parnassus aren’t you? (Gilliam nods.)

At this point I share with Terry the story of the first time I met Heath Ledger and how that meeting led me to learn more about Terry. Terry and I laughed all through the story.

I had asked Heath was who was the director he most wanted to work with again. He immediately, without batting an eye, told me “Terry Gilliam. I love the guy. I’d do anything to work with him again. He’s amazing.” I explained to Terry that even though I’d always been a fan of his, Heath’s response really intrigued me and I began to research Gilliam even more to see what it was about his man that Ledger found worthy of such high praise. Through that I soon realized that there was much more to Terry Gilliam than his films and became even a bigger supporter.

TG: (Nodding and laughing) That’s exactly how he was. No, attitude, no pretensions. He was funny, too. (He sighs) All the things they’re saying about him now…about before he died… it’s not true. It’s bullshit.”

TS: I know. It’s so wrong. He wasn’t like that.

TG: Yeah.

TS: I had a great email conversation with Dave Warren, the Art Director of Dr. Parnassus about whose name is on the tombstone in the movie. Can you tell me whose name is on the tombstone?

TG: (Rolling his eyes and sighing just like Dave Warren said he would). Yes. Bob Hollow.

TS: And, what can you tell me about the world of Bob Hollow?

TG: Well, you see, Bob has been the one who has built and fixed things on my movies for years. And he built the wagon for Dr. Parnassus. It was useless. It never worked right.

TS: That’s what Dave Warren said. He said the wagon did work sooner or later but that from what he remembered, it never did what you wanted it to when you wanted it to. However, I am happy to report that Dave said Bob was alive and well the last time he talked to him.

TG: Yes, he is. We actually had to have two wagons you see. The wagon with the stage and all the props and everything closed up in it was too heavy for the horses to pull. So, we had to have one that was empty for the horses to be able to pull it. It was just hollow.

Things get mad on the set sometimes. You always have to be careful. On the last day Heath filmed, he got hurt when an explosion went wrong because the pyrotechnics guy wasn’t careful. You know the scene when they are escaping and Heath runs through the street and the explosions are going off and he grabs onto the back of the wagon? Well, you NEVER set off an explosion until after the actor has passed the explosive. Then you set it off. This guy set it off too soon. He exploded it when Heath was right beside it [the explosive device]. Heath got hit by the debris and was injured right here (with his finger he indicates right below his right eye.) I fired the guy right there. I was screaming at him, ‘Get Off My Damned Set NOW!” I was furious.

TS: That had to be terrifying. Thank heaven it wasn’t worse. You can’t have that kind of thing happening. So, Terry, how tired are you? I can’t even remember what country you’re in from day to day, can you?

TG: No, I can’t. I’m just like this machine at the moment. Just going and going because I know I will do ANYTHING to maximize the publicity we get for the movie. So, I mean, I went from New York to Italy, then back from Italy to do the Python thing at Albert Hall (“Not The Messiah”). Then, I left from that and went to Lyon, France where I got a plaque on the wall at the Institut Lumiere. The Lumiere brothers who created the first motion picture camera and film; they’ve got this fantastic institute there. Actually with the original stage that was built and there’s a position on the pavement outside where the very first motion picture was actually shot of the workers leaving the factory. Pretty fabulous. So, I go from there to Paris for more stuff, then immediately back to London to get on the plane to come here.

TS: Don’t forget Australia.

TG: No, I haven’t been to Australia. I did that on the phone.

TS: I was wondering about that because I knew you were headed here as well and I was like, “Oh, my God, does he even know where he is right now?

TG: (Grinning) No, I don’t. But Australia was on the phone, so that was alright. But, Italy, France, Germany, The States, Canada…and all I do is talk about one thing, this fucking film! (Everyone laughs.)

TS: It’s got to be like in a concert where a singer is singing the same song for the thousandth time and, yes, they love the song, but you know what? They’re like, give me a break. Let me sing something new.

TG: Yeah, yeah. The worst thing is I even think …well, my answers now, I don’t believe them. I’ve said them so often that they may not be the truth. They just happen to be convenient. (More laughter.)

TS: (I point to actress, Christa Woomer, who has accompanied me) This is my little comedienne from the videos to support Dr. Parnassus that you like so much. We’ve been thinking about our next video to support the film. Again, we’ll have Christa and Nancy, then we’ll be adding to our motley crew. We’ve pretty much decided it’s time for us to introduce the new rap group, Percy and the Four Tonys.

TG: (Cracking up) Really?

TS: Yep. Nancy has a two year old, so we are going to give him the role of Percy.

TG: Good, good! Great!

TS: These are actors who have worked with me on stage for ages and they’re so wonderful and are huge fans of yours. They’re having so much fun supporting you. Anyway, so I call Nancy and I’m like, “Nancy, honey, can I use your kid?” (Terry’s really cracking up now.)

And, Nancy’s like, “Oh, sure, why not!” We’ve done some pretty crazy things to get our point across about this movie.

Christa: Including stealing Nancy’s kid and putting him to work in our craziness. Besides, he’s two now, it’s time he got a job! (Everyone laughs)

TG: Do you know how many hits you get? Do you know any of that stuff?

TS: On the main site, itself?

TG: Yeah.

TS: On the homepage…because it’s in several sections…

TG: Yeah, I know. I check it every day. You know that. (Everyone laughs.)

TS: Yes, I heard. Well, the homepage itself is right at three-quarters of a million hits. About 730,000 hits.

TG: Really? Jesus.

TS: Yep.

TG: And, that’s all over the world?

TS: Yes.

TG: That’s brilliant.

TS: Thank you. I’m really thrilled about it. I think it’s the greatest thing to see the fans stand up and demand to be heard. And, really, we couldn’t be more mom and pop. Talk about grass roots. I do all the administration, design, publicity and making of the private videos promoting the film for the site, building of the site, forums and galleries, business, writing of posts and articles, public relations and such, Jodelle is the research admin and searches for photos and videos and makes montages and runs our YouTube channel (which is a huge job) and Raychella is our head moderator and takes care of all the various theater release dates and the general international release dates, keeps it all updated, finds all the international websites for all the various distributors and theaters and that kind of thing (which is an enormous amount of work as well). Then the fans help us spread the word and participate which is so incredibly vital. We’ve all become very close. They’re all just amazing.

TG: How long do you spend each day?

TS: Me, personally? Six hours. Maybe eight.

TG: That’s incredible.

Christa: No, I’ll tell you how it really is because she’ll be like (does imitation of Theresa), “Oh, I just do a little stuff for fun.” (Terry starts laughing really hard at the imitation.)

She gets up at 6:00 a.m. and leaves for work at 8:30 a.m. She sits down to work on the site as soon as she gets up. She’ll take half an hour to get ready for work. Then she goes to work. She comes home by 5:30 and she’ll be on the site from 5:30 until 11 p.m. And, I know she works on it from her office. God only knows what she does during lunch. Every day. And, on the weekends she gets up at 6:00 or 7:00 and she’ll be working on the site until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. All day. I’ll bring her food and I’ll be like, ‘Mom, it’s time to take a bathroom break. I’m not giving you a catheter, I refuse. (Terry’s really laughing now.) I bring her some food and she’s like, “No, I’ve just got to do this one thing.” (More Gilliam laughter.) For months. Every day. Well, let’s see here, when did you have a break. Oh, yeah for Halloween. You looked at that funny Ghost Hunter show for about 30 minutes on TV.

TS: Yeah, that was hilarious. I was laughing so hard.

Christa: Yep, she took a 30 minute TV break. She does it all the time. All the time.

TG: Christ.

TS: Well, if you believe in something you have to do right by it. You reap what you sow

TG: Yeah, there’s nothing better than to have something you are that passionate about, really.

TS: Yeah. And, I am definitely that passionate about THIS film. A friend of mine was laughing at me because I was so furious over a particular critic’s review. I got like a junkyard dog. I said to her, excuse me but what the hell movie did this guy see? I was livid. She, just laughs at me and says, calm down. Most of them don’t bother me, but this guy was ridiculous.

TG: It’s like this. Maggie, my wife, is very blasé about all this. But, there was one lady on For Culture, a show in London and some woman was just ripping, ripping the whole thing apart. And, I’ve never seen Maggie so angry. She wanted to find out who this was… “I’m going to destroy her.” (he grins.)

TS: (Laughing) I like Maggie, good for her. We’d do well together.

TG: I’ve never seen her so angry. Because…well, I keep saying, it’s a terrible job being a critic, you know. Because you’ve got maybe a half-hour at best to write an article about something that somebody spent two or three years on and it’s a terrible job to have to condense it and ruin it in that time. Where some of us spent three years to make a mess of it. (Everyone laughs.) And, they’ve got to try to do it in half-hour. (Laughing.)

TS: When I was getting ready to see the film, I called a friend and said, Alright, what if it sucks? She started laughing at me and said, “What are you talking about, you know it’s not going to suck. You’ve never allowed even one thought…” And, I said, “I’m just sayin’ what if it sucks?” (Terry laughs and nods.)

TG: Yeah, you were out on a limb there. (Giggling) So far out.

TS: I was like, “I’d have to leave the country.”

Christa: That’s not true. Not for once did she really believe that. Besides if it had, she would have changed it to, now we really have to support INDIE film. (Terry laughs.)

TG: Yeah, it’s true. It could have been a disaster. We had an experience with Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas because Johnny and I were terrified of Hunter not liking that.

TS: I can’t even imagine.

TG: And, he turned out to be equally terrified of not liking it. So, we set up screening after screening which for various reasons he wasn’t able to attend at the last moment. And, finally, he saw it at somebody’s house in Aspen and somebody, as always with Hunter, had a video camera. I mean it was a historical moment every day of his life (we all crack up) and the lights come up and there’s Hunter just rolling around on the floor just laughing. And, he was just so relieved because he loved the movie. We were relieved because he loved the movie. “Aaahhhh” (Gilliam lets out a huge sigh of relief.)

TS: Oh, we both just loved the movie.

TG: Where’d you see it?

Christa: At a press screening here.

TS: Amy invited us.

TG: Oh, good, good.

TS: A couple of days after the UK premier.

TG: Right.

TS: We haven’t shut up about it since.

TG: Have you seen it a second time?

TS: Tonight.

TG: Ah, good. It’s better the second time. It really is.

TS: I can’t imagine it being better.

Christa: You’ll understand more.

TS: True.

TG: It’s like Margie Simpkins. Do you know Margie?

TS: No.

TG: She casts my American films and she’s always been very critical of everything I do and she’s very open about it. It doesn’t work or…And, I’ve never seen her react as positively as she did the first time she saw it. Her jaw just dropped. She’s seen it four times now. The second time she said, “The second time, now I can follow the emotional story.” Then the third time she says, “Oh, the score is so fantastic.” And the fourth time, it’s like…

TS: Yeah, you have the opportunity to delve deeper. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film I’ve seen so much of my life in. My relationship with my dad. Me at Valentina’s age…

TG: Yeah.

TS: And, me as Dr. Parnassus.

TG: Ooooh, nice.

TS: Me as …well, I’ve had my children alone for 30 years now. It’s just been us. We’ve been dirt poor at times, we’ve been where I wondered where shoes and clothes would come from. A roof over our heads.

TG: Yeah.

TS: So when I saw how fragile and fallible Dr. Parnassus was and that…you know what? You have to do penance when you do your kid wrong. Whether on purpose or by accident. And, that’s the standing outside the window looking at her until you straighten yourself up. I think all of us, as parents, experience that point with our children and we either choose to do our penance or lose the most important thing in our lives.

TG: Yeah. I don’t remember their names, but these guys from Cannes, had dinner with two of the biggest American critics who saw it in Cannes. And both of these major, major critics said, “there’s just nothing there.” The guys from Cannes told them to see it a second time. They did and they loved it. Part of the problem is that the critics in London have intellectualized it too much. They’ve made it sound complicated. It’s not. Everybody I know who’ve gone to see it just says, “it’s fantastic.”

Christa: It is fantastic. There’s nothing complicated or convoluted about the story. It’s just a beautiful story.

TS. It’s brilliant. I don’t get the need for all the bs.

TG: I know. That’s why I keep saying about the kids. If the kids can understand it, why can’t the adults? They should be able to, but sometimes they just can’t.

Christa: My acting teacher once told me that children understand so much more than adults because as you get older you have all these social pressures to be quiet, be good, pay attention, don’t get up, don’t move, don’t wiggle and you are just so stuck in this little box of how to behave…We get desensitized as adults. We suppress our imaginations. Kids are so pure and open. They just experience it.

TG: Yeah.

Christa: I mean the little kid is just so excited, so fun loving, so pure and full of energy. They have imaginations. They are so much more open. Not shoved into a box like adults.

TG: The other day I watched Parnassus with no sound and you can still understand the story without a single word. And you can see why a little kid walks in and these images are there and she’s beautiful and he’s fantastic and all this is going on and they can follow it. You can follow it without the sound. And, that’s what’s so ridiculous. Then when people can’t see it because their minds are so structured now…they’re desperately putting things in these simple structures.

TS: It’s so sad that we suppress our own imaginations and make things so complicated when there’s just no need. We forget how to just experience the beauty and the meaning.

TG: Yep.

Christa: My ex-husband was a big fan and he was going to see 12 Monkeys with some friends. I wanted to go too. He said, “No, honey, you’re not smart enough for a Terry Gilliam movie. You won’t get it. You won’t like it.”

TG: (Laughs) I’m not smart enough for a Terry Gilliam movie. Tell him, you met me, I’m dumb.

Christa: No, you’re not.

TG: Yes, I am.

The time has come for us to wind things up so that everyone can do all the necessary last minute things before the red carpet and premier of the film at the AFI Film Festival tonight, so we prepare to leave and Terry accompanies us to the elevator and down to the lobby to see us off. On the way we chat a little more.

TG: You know, it’s funny, we were so broke making the movie we were riding the bus to work and now look where they are putting us up (indicates the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills). It’s very strange.

TS: I imagine it is. Thank you for having us.

TG: Thank you. (We hug goodbye and give a kiss on the cheek.) See you tonight.

TS: You bet.

Christa: Thank you. See you tonight.

© Submit to Any - jjtcomputing.co.uk