I wanted to share this terrific Pre-Oscar interview Filmmaker Magazine did with Terry Gilliam. The Oscars take place this Sunday, March 7th in Los Angeles.

Source: Filmmaker Magazine

By Jason Guerrasio

Leading up to the Oscars on March 7, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Jason Guerrasio interviewed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus co-writer-director Terry Gilliam for our Winter 2010 issue. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is nominated for Best Art Direction (Art Director: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith) and Best Costume Design (Monique Prudhomme).

An elderly man pulls his carriage to the curb and prepares to put on a show. Onlookers watch with a mixture of bewilderment and vague familiarity; the man’s shtick, once enjoyed by the masses, now gets passing glances. The show begins and it’s hard to tell if the crowd is entertained or simply bemused by the old-fashioned spectacle.

The above scenario befalls the titular hero of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but in some ways it also describes the struggles of the film’s perspicacious director. For 30 years Terry Gilliam has battled to tell his fantastical stories without interference from the prying hands of Hollywood. But lately audiences have seemingly become tired of Gilliam’s madness. The Brothers Grimm, a realistic look at the 19th-century fairytale writers, received lackluster box office returns. Gilliam followed up with the low-budget Tideland, which did even worse. In fact, you could make the argument that the best of Gilliam’s recent work was contained within his biggest failure. In the award-winning documentary Lost in La Mancha, directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe filmed the disintegration of Gilliam’s 2000 The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a project bedeviled by a flash flood, NATO test flights interrupting location shoots and, finally, an injury to Gilliam’s Quixote, Jean Rochefort, which halted the project permanently.

With Doctor Parnassus, Gilliam once more seeks a multiplex audience, this time by returning to the anarchic blending of fantasy and reality that garnered him critical acclaim in the ’80s with films like Time Bandits, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Christopher Plummer plays Parnassus, an immortal dream weaver who travels around modern-day London in a horse-drawn wagon with his street performers, Percy (Verne Troyer), Anton (Andrew Garfield) and his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). Putting on shows in front of bars and strip mall parking lots, Parnassus uses his powers to lure people into his magical mirror, where the unsuspecting volunteers find themselves in a world created from their subconscious. But unbeknownst to them, they have to decide while in the Imaginarium if they will exit back into the real world or go deeper inside where the Devil is waiting. We learn this is a game Parnassus and the Prince of Darkness (played with great wit by Tom Waits) have been playing for centuries, and now Parnassus’s daughter is the prize for whoever can get the most souls by her 16th birthday. But with Valentina’s sweet 16 nearing and Parnassus’s theatrics less enticing to modern audiences, Parnassus needs a new draw. He picks up a con artist named Tony (Heath Ledger), and with his help the game suddenly changes.

The film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and has received generally good reviews, but, as everyone knows, production catastrophes seem to plague all of Gilliam’s films. Two days after wrapping shooting in London and moving to Vancouver to do the CGI for the Imaginarium scenes, Ledger was found dead at his New York City apartment of an accidental overdose. The passing of his star and good friend sapped the energy out of Gilliam, who was prepared to terminate production. But through the coaxing of his daughter, producer Amy Gilliam, and others, he rewrote the story, with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all volunteering to take over Ledger’s character, giving Gilliam the rejuvenation he needed to bring his latest fantasy to life.

Gilliam sat down for lunch with Filmmaker in New York City last month to talk about why he won’t pander to the audience, the resurrection of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and what drives him to still make movies.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is currently in theaters through Sony Pictures Classics.

Filmmaker: Is it true that this is the first original screenplay you’ve written since Brazil?

Gilliam: I think so. Everything else, and you can include Munchausen, there was a book that started it. This was the first one that started with nothing except hopefully whatever imagination and talent I still have left. Well [it started with] me and [screenwriter] Charles McKeown [Gilliam’s collaborator on Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen] as, literally, a blank page. I just wanted to see if I still had the stuff anymore.

Filmmaker: What comes first for you when you write: visual images or story?

Gilliam: Well, there was no story for quite a while. There had been a thing that I had been pondering over for years, images of something from another time ending up in our time and nobody being able to explain it. It was as simple as that. Then at one point, because I have a house in Italy, people said, “Oh, wouldn’t it be great to do the whole thing in Italy?” And I thought of images of an old wagon and then, bingo, it was pretty quick to the idea of this traveling show from another time turning up in modern London. Something wonderful, exotic, ancient and weird, and nobody ever paying attention to it.

Filmmaker: Tell me about your collaboration with McKeown.

Gilliam: There’s no real form. Half of the time it’s by trading e-mails — we don’t have to be together. So he’ll write a whole chunk, and I’ll write, and we’ll stick it together and see if we should change it or not. It’s a constant dialogue, I suppose, and the story develops that way. I wish I had a system but I don’t. There isn’t a system except my instinct. And what’s difficult with Charles is he’s more verbal and I’m more visual, so he has to trust that the visual bit that I’m doing is going to work.

Filmmaker: What about the character of the street performer, which is a familiar one from much of modern cinema. Was this a starting point?

Gilliam: Yes and no. It was actually the wagon itself. That first shot of the film is really where it began for me in my head. And then we work out who are these people, what are they doing, what are they selling? And little by little we came up with [the story]. I told Charles it would be great to do something like Bergman did in Fanny and Alexander and Fellini with Amarcord, which were both films at a certain point in their career where they relaxed, stopped dealing with hard issues and just did what was natural. This was a way to use all of the ideas in my desk that had never found a home. They all didn’t make it into the film but they were nice starting points. I think the other film that I remembered watching was The Seventh Seal. Suddenly there’s that little traveling theater and that little family in the movie, and in fact the character Joseph, the father in the movie, is who we based Anton on because he’s an innocent. Then with Parnassus having a daughter, that was me coming into the scene just like Munchausen — it’s me having two daughters. My son is really pissed off — he never turns up in my films. [Laughs]

Filmmaker: I’ve read that Georges Méliès was an inspiration. Didn’t he do street performing at the end of his life?

Gilliam: No, he had a little stall outside of a train station in Paris where he sold children’s toys. I mean here was the guy who was the first great fantasist, sci-fi filmmaker, magician, everything, so the end of the film is an homage to Méliès. I discovered a month ago in France that the train station outside of which Méliès was selling his toys was named Montparnasse. It’s moments like these when you think there are forces at work.

Filmmaker: How much of Parnassus’s personality, particularly his relentless drive to tell a story, come from you?

Gilliam: Well the part that I put in was the frustration of thinking that I have interesting things to say and to inspire and enlighten and nobody is paying attention. It’s that frustration that any artistic person feels in one form or another. No matter how successful you become that is the needling thing — you can reach more people… if only. [Laughs]

Filmmaker: It felt to me that you were saying it was never too late for us to find that imagination, but that perhaps modern technology is leading us away from the creativity contained naturally within us.

Gilliam: It’s like theater. Theater is artifice, it’s fake, but you, the audience, have to take those sets and make them into real things. It’s like children when they play with toys. [Gilliam begins playing with his knife] I have a train and I’m going to put it here — that’s an active imagination turning that knife into a beautiful silver train. That’s what children do. I think adults stop doing that. They learn to focus. That’s how they think you have to get through life, with structure. I think cinema and television now are becoming passive mediums because there’s so much information, you don’t have to fill in the gaps. Everything is already all there. The big films today are the same film again and again and again. You watch trailers, they’re exactly the same, just different costumes. The rhythms are the same, and that’s what bothers me.

[Most films] are naturalistic, no matter how fantastical they are. I’ve always wanted to be hyperrealistic but not naturalistic, and in this one in particular. In the Imaginarium those landscapes are obviously not naturalistic but they’re believable. And also, I just want the audience to work and then start to get involved. The more you work on something the more you get out of it. It’s like Don DeLillo’s White Noise — we’re inundated with noise, information, facts, but how much do they actually apply to our lives? The example I use is we have a house in Italy and my son will come over. It’s very basic; we have no television or phone. It’s just there. And we would go there and he’d be bored. He’s a 13-year-old kid, and he’s like, “Where are the video games?” Then by the third day suddenly he’s doing things. That tree becomes something, and he’s inventing a world, and he’s excited and having fun. But when we leave he’s back at the television. So that’s what scares me about the modern world.

Filmmaker: You use CGI, which is a tool that most films today use. But is there a point when you even find that it becomes too much, when it fights against that “hyperrealistic” feel you are looking for?

Gilliam: The budget. [Laughs] No, it’s not an aesthetic problem in that sense of what is real, what’s tangible, where you need weight and gravity and where you don’t. I’m pragmatic, [looking for] what will get the job done most efficiently and cheapest. I don’t want unlimited things. I want to be restrained.

Filmmaker: When did Heath Ledger originally get involved in the project?

Gilliam: After Brothers Grimm we were really close but he went through a very weird year after Brokeback Mountain. He hated doing all of the publicity for the Oscars. You go through all of that and you don’t win, so he said he wanted to go back and do some small films in Australia. He was going in all directions, and I offered him a couple of things. He was in London working on the editing of his Modest Mouse video — this was around the time he was playing the Joker — and while he was working on that he passed me a note asking if he could play Tony. I asked him why and he said, “Because I want to see this movie.” Ironically he’s the one person who can’t see the movie. The god of irony is the most powerful god of all.

Filmmaker: Once you started up the project after Ledger’s death, how long did it take you to realize it could still work?

Gilliam: Pragmatically there was no way to get one great actor to come in for a couple of weeks and take the part, nor did I think it was the right thing to do. But three actors, that would be interesting. So I just started calling friends. And we ended up with these three losers. [Laughs] They were great, but it was a real nightmare to work around all their schedules. And the difficult thing about it was I had no faith that it would work. Then we were in London to do the assembly. We showed it to the guy who was doing the postproduction sound and for some reason, I guess he hadn’t been reading the papers, [laughs] he’d just assumed it had been written to be done exactly like that. That’s when I knew it would work.

Filmmaker: This could be my imagination at play, but when we’re introduced to the different Tonys in the Imaginarium, before seeing their faces, it almost looks like Heath’s features before Depp or Law or Farrell are revealed. Was there any CGI used to blend his facial structure into theirs?

Gilliam: You spotted it. But it’s not CG — it’s all real. We found a double, his credit is hidden but it’s Heath’s double, Zander Gladish, an actor from New York who looks so much like Heath it’s crazy. No one has asked me about this, but that’s why the transitions work. You don’t go into the mirror and become someone else — you gradually do it. It was just spooky — there were days you’d come to work in the morning and Zander would be sitting there and I’d swear it was Heath.

Filmmaker: How about in terms of the storyline? Was it difficult to rewrite after Heath’s death?

Gilliam: No. We held onto certain scenes that I thought I’d be able to block, which in the end I kind of did. I changed the drunk guy’s face in the beginning, but the rest of it is as written. I added things like the women revealing Johnny and saying, “I dreamed you would always look like this” — that sells the transformation. But the rest is the original story. There is a scene were Tony and Anton fight on the other side of the mirror. Originally that was supposed to be in the wagon, but now it works better because it’s the two rivals fighting over Valentina, and that’s why I always say Heath co-directed this film posthumously.

Filmmaker: I’ve read that some of your highest test-screening scores have come from children.

Gilliam: Yes. I keep telling people this. All of the good, sophisticated, knowledgeable people in the business think I’m crazy, and they are absolutely wrong. The youngest are 7 year olds who’ve seen the movie — 7, 8, 9 year olds. It works right across the board, just like Time Bandits and Munchausen. I don’t know why the [executives] don’t understand — for kids this is wondrous. It’s a beautiful storybook, and you don’t have to understand all of the intellectual ideas.

Filmmaker: Is it true that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is back in the works?

Gilliam: After seven years in the French legal wilderness I finally read the script again. Through this whole time I’d never read it because I thought it was perfect. Then I went back and read it and thought, “This is a piece of shit.” [Laughs] We did a rewrite, only the beginning [of the script], but it has now changed the meaning of everything and it’s so much fucking better. People say it’s the curse of Gilliam. It’s the luck of Gilliam — I would have made the film and it wouldn’t have been good. So we’re out there casting and Robert Duvall let it out [that he wants to play Quixote]. I have been staying quiet. I think it would be exciting to have him do it. Now we’re just looking for money. [Laughs] But we have a script and a budget, and we’re trying to get realistic with the budget because we’re in the difficult money, the $25 to $30 million range — no one will give you that. The way you do it is through foreign money. There is money out there. That’s what we did with Parnassus; we patched it together from all over the world.

Filmmaker: And Johnny Depp is no longer involved?

Gilliam: Johnny and I are happily divorced. [Laughs] I love him and he’s one of my best friends, but he has to escape from Jack Sparrow. Jack has run its course, but how can you run away when they’re offering you that kind of money?

Filmmaker: So you’re still searching for someone?

Gilliam: I have someone but I’m not telling.

Filmmaker: Looking back on your career there have been struggles in every project you’ve done. What is it that keeps you driven to continue making films?

Gilliam: That’s the thing, I don’t know what it is. It’s much easier to say, “Fuck it, I don’t need this anymore.” But I do it every day. My wife wants me to stop. It’s partly out of sheer perversity. I’ve now entered my 70th year on this planet. That’s an old fart, and it’s the weariness that creeps in that I’m most worried about. Once you get working the adrenaline is pumping and the enthusiasm is there, but it’s the business of pushing something into existence, this money phase, I’m just fucking tired of. I hate it. Whenever I go out there and raise money I talk to people and they tell me how Time Bandits changed their lives and that they loved Munchausen. “But this new one, I just don’t know.” Well, nobody wanted those other ones either. [Laughs] You find the one guy in Hollywood who wants it made and then everybody thinks it was obvious.

Filmmaker: What’s the payoff, then?

Gilliam: People like my films. When I see an audience beaming it’s great. It’s that more than anything. It’s not so much that I have important things to say and they must be said at all costs. It’s not that. It’s that I make it and somewhere down the line somebody walks up to me and says, “Munchausen… man.” You know you actually got to somebody. It’s as simple as that.

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Source: CG Society

CGSociety :: Production Focus
18 February 2010, by Renee Dunlop

Terry Gilliam’s imagination is leaking again, in a display of imagery from his brain to your eyes. From landscapes of giant high heels to airborne jellyfish, he takes the viewer on a journey that is nothing less than a spectacle of inventiveness. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus utilizes Gilliam’s wide range of talents in his unique way, this time incorporating digital FX into the soup.

DESIGN

Parnassus Original Designer and Art Director David Warren, whose wry sense of humor is entertainment in its own right said, “there are a few jobs in the film industry apart from directing which Terry would like to do and can do. He’s very interested in how VFX works,” proven by his co-founding of the Peerless Camera Company, “and visual FX is running through his blood. But, bloody hell, you have to go fast to keep up with him, because he does push out the ideas!” Gilliam himself did the storyboards for all the major Imaginarium sequences, scanning and placing them in a library file and “hell have no fury if you don’t look at them.” READ MORE HERE

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Source: Variety

By Andrew Barker

But star’s death didn’t much impact sets, costumes.

Though it was delayed midway through filming by the death of star Heath Ledger and rejiggered with a trio of “replacement” actors to limn Ledger’s character in fantasy sequences, Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” was always intended to be a dual-faceted work — right down to the craft levels, with sets split between London and Vancouver representing modern-day settings and through-the-looking-glass dreamworlds, respectively.Mavens of magic

After the lensing of exteriors in London was complete, Ledger’s passing brought a halt to production just prior to shooting on the film’s Vancouver stages. Nevertheless, production designer Anastasia Masaro (nominated for an Oscar together with Dave Warren and set decorator Caroline Smith) notes that the film’s sudden thesping changes required little adjustment on her part: “Ideas for the Imaginarium scenes were already present in Parnassus’ den in the London sets. The basic tenets were there.”

Costume designer Monique Prudhomme, also enjoying her first Oscar nom, admits she was somewhat intimidated by the notion of working with the director, whose elaborate, hallucinatory visuals in films like “Time Bandits” and “Brazil” reflect a deeply idiosyncratic visual sense.

“(Gilliam) is open to everything as long as you keep him interested,” she says. “But for every two ideas you have, he has 200. The challenge for me as a designer was that, even when you’re doing a sci-fi or a fantasy film, you usually still work inside the box. But this one was everywhere, a mix of different periods.”

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Source: Dreams Terry Gilliam Fanzine

By Phil Stubbs

In December 2009, Dave Warren spoke to Dreams about the design of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. An experienced Art Director, his credit on this picture is “Original Design and Art Direction”, which he shares with the film’s director, Terry Gilliam. In this interview, Dave explains his experience of working on Dr Parnassus, and in particular the design obstacles that needed to be overcome – to bring this picture from conception to completion.

Phil Stubbs: How did you get involved with the project?
Dave Warren: Actually, I’ve known Terry on and off since 1992. I did a thesis in college about Terry and I interviewed him towards the end of it. In a funny kind of way, it’s almost like he’s sown the seeds of a career to reap fifteen or twenty years later. It’s not quite as cut and dried as that, but I sense there’s something like this going on. After that interview he asked: what do you do? I said I was trying to be an illustrator. He said: you must come in with your work, I’d love to see what you do. I thought: Terry Gilliam is clearly a man with time on his hands! At that stage he’d probably just done The Fisher King and that was going to open. I did meet him, I went up to Highgate, I did the whole show-and-tell thing.

Then I had this phone call out of the blue while he was working on The Defective Detective. He was with Paramount trying to get it off the ground for $25m. He said he could do it for that, and they said he couldn’t. He got a little development budget together.

At this point Dante Ferretti was in the UK, probably for early meetings for Interview with the Vampire. Dante Ferretti is an old mucker of Terry’s, having done Baron Munchausen. So Dante came for six to eight weeks with Terry on production sketches for The Defective Detective, which I still have photographs of somewhere (so remind me of that one day). I got a phone call from Terry (or Maggie) asking if I could come and help Dante put this model together of the big cityscape of The Defective Detective. I did that for a month. Then the film went off to land of development, which is beyond the rings of Saturn, never to come back. Dante went on to do Interview with a Vampire, and he told me: if you’re not working then you can come with me. So I was set on the horrendous steel rails of the film industry, never to get off. And I’ve never looked back.

Years and years later, I was working on Sweeney Todd at Pinewood as an Art Director with Dante as the Production Designer. By this time Dante’s spiralled off into a different stratosphere with Martin Scorsese. So I think it would be a rare thing for Dante to work with Terry again because they have gone off in different directions. Yet I know that Dante has a huge amount of respect for Terry. (imitating Dante) “He’s an artist… a filmmaker, yes, but more than this, he’s a great artist.”

Terry came in to see Dante. I think he was also coming in to catch Richard Zanuck who was producing Sweeney Todd – to see if he could try and get some finance from that direction for this new film with the wagon. So Terry was chatting to Dante, and I met Terry again. Funnily enough we had built a caravan for Sweeney Todd. The Italian hairdresser, Pirelli, has this caravan in a big open marketplace; he had this competition with Todd. Terry was looking at it, looking at wheels and bits and pieces like that. He was mumbling about having to build this big wagon to go around the centre of London, and I thought little more of it. Sweeney Todd carried on, it finished and we all went our separate ways, and then I had this phone call out of the blue from Terry.

At that stage Terry didn’t mention what my role might be. He uses this phrase like he does with everybody: Can you help? Do you think you can help, we are putting this thing together, can you help? I said, “What do you want… do you want some money? I could come in and work.” It was so weird because it was like fifteen years had never happened. I was driving up to Highgate again, going up to see the boss in the famous loft. I had a very nice afternoon with him, we chatted about it. I’d already seen the script so I had done some sketches and a little bit of research. I went in there and whacked what I’d done on the table. Terry said “Great… great… I see you are thinking about it… but you should have a look at what I’ve got.” And of course Terry had already put together this wonderful leather bound book with key frame images for all the major scenes. He’d got it, he knew exactly what the film needed to look like. He just hadn’t filled in all the gaps yet. It led from there really.

READ MORE HERE

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Source: Chud

By Shawn C. Baker

The movie theatre grows suddenly dark and an ominous voice over fills the aural spaces of the lushly carpeted room:

(In the Optimus Prime guy voice:)
IN A WORLD RACKED WITH CONTRADICTION FOR MOVIE GOERS:
THEY WANT SPECIAL EFFECTS.
THEY WANT OSCAR-WINNING STORIES.

THE SAME PREJUDICES THAT DIVIDE THEM COULD ALSO UNITE…

Why, when half the movie going public sits down for two plus hours and drools over a piece of absolute excrement such as transformers two and the other half argues the importance of plot over effects, why do most of these folks fail to see that the best of both worlds is possible?

What, you think I’m wrong? You think it’s not possible?

Terry Gilliam makes it possible. Well, so do others, but today’s soapbox is Gilliam-flavored. He makes clever, involving films with crazy effects. Yet picture after picture he gets ignored/lambasted for his work – event though it is light years ahead of most of the other stuff grouped in the ‘fantasy’ realm that filters out through the studio system every year.

Cases in point Brazil. Twelve Monkeys. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Time Bandits.

Need I continue?

Films highly influenced by Gilliam, i.e. Julie Tamor’s Titus or Tarsem Singh’s The Fall may not necessarily get huge box office outings but they do seem to garner immediate and rabid ‘indie cred’. Fine, they deserve it. But that’s like singing the praises of Kurt Cobain and insulting The Pixies.

Gilliam gets nothing. Except from his fans. Which judging by the difficulty Dr. Parnassus had getting an American distributor and it’s subsequent teeny tiny run now that it does have one, with next to no advertising* I’d say number considerably less now than just as far back as say Brothers Grimm in 2005.

Terry Gilliam is disappearing from the industry. Tim Burton retreads the same shallow ground over and over again** and Gilliam is lucky to be able to do anything.

Current case in point: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Now, yes, some of you are going to argue that Dr. Parnassus’ story is not as magnificent as I’m making it out to be. Fine, it’s not the most tightly written film of the year (or Mr. Gilliam’s career). But it’s not a bad story. It’s not ‘the same story’ we get with most fantasy/sci fi. It’s human failability (is that a word?) It’s love, and weakness, and death and the devil. It’s the magic of the Imagination, a concept present in nearly all of Gilliam’s films. It’s endearing. READ MORE HERE

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EXCLUSIVE

By: Theresa Shell

Amy Gilliam, the producer of “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”, is amazing. This lovely young woman with the dark hair, blue eyes and ready smile is her own person, comfortable in her own skin. Amy is tenacious, determined, bright and very funny. She is generous and candid as she talks with us at The Dr. Parnassus Support Site about the making of the film. She shares the joys, the difficulties, the heart breaking losses and great rewards of seeing “Dr. Parnassus” move from written page to theaters around the world. We are pleased to be able to bring you these stories and memories of which you were not aware. What an extraordinary journey it has been.

Theresa Shell: You have an extensive resume in film making, working your way up by doing everything from being the clapboard loader, to being Angelina Jolie’s stand-in, to camera assistant, assistant director, executive producer and now producer. This is a very wise way to learn the ins and outs of the business. Are you paving the road to a career in directing?

Amy Gilliam: It’s too early in my career to even put that thought into people’s heads. When I started in the film industry…shall I tell you when I started in the film industry. Give you a background?

TS: Yes, please.

AG: Since I grew up in the film industry around film sets, what have you, I always said, I’m not going to work in the film industry because my parents did. I think many children say that they are always going to do the opposite of their parents just to prove them wrong or to prove that they can do other things.

I was on summer holiday from art school in London when dad was prepping “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas”. So, off I went to Los Angeles with my boyfriend at the time. I was very interested in the costumes and fashion and thought that might be the route I would go. I asked Julie Weiss, the costume designer, if I could come and work with her. Just visiting a film set as the director’s daughter is a very different experience than working on a movie. Of course, the minute I am working on one of my dad’s films he’s told everyone how they’re not to give me any special treatment and it made it harder on me than it would just anyone working on a film set (laughs). So, I start working with Julie White (she is truly the most incredible woman and a dear friend and just a wonderful, very talented costume designer). The first thing I had to do, for the first three weeks in wardrobe, was pinning blue ribbons on the costumes that were hired and green ribbons on the costumes she owned. This was not ever what I thought I’d really be doing on a film (both of us are laughing). I thought I would be designing and on the set. But, the thing was, that film was so incredible and the most fantastic summer holiday of my life. I mean Los Angeles, Vegas, we had this cast of incredible actors and an amazing crew, so I thought, I don’t want to go back to art school. I’ve had far too much fun. It was at that point that I realized that I was slightly hooked on this very unique industry. If someone could tell me a job I could do that was better than this or that I could do that wasn’t this, but was as exciting with every day being a challenge where you never know what’s going to happen, I’d love to know, because I was completely hooked. So, my career going in the other direction from my parents didn’t happen.

I knew that I didn’t want to be in an office job. I needed to find a job on a film set where I could be on the set. By now I was wanting to be in the middle of all the action. Of course it takes a while to get to that point, if you want to be an on-set director, perhaps, but as a wardrobe person, or starting out, you’re not really on-set. I’ve always loved photography and I’ve always been taking photos or what have you. Roger Pratt is Dad’s DOP (he did 12 Monkeys…if Dad didn’t work with Nicola Pecorini, it was Roger Pratt). I went to Roger and said pretty please may I be your camera trainee? I thought, camera…it’s right in the middle of the action, they can never be without a camera, so I’m always going to be on-set and I’m always going to get to see everything. Eventually, after some persuasion, I convinced him to take me on, on the camera as a trainee. I think Roger was uncomfortable with nepotism or whatever, which is actually rife in the film industry. It was pretty tough because there weren’t many women in camera at that time and I think guys…I don’t know…you had to become quite strong and deal with all these men going, “you can’t lift that” and you do lift it and you can lift it, but you have to take this from these guys.

The one thing I never did was go out as Terry Gilliam’s daughter. I would just try to be there as me. Many times people would come up to me and say, “Is your dad Terry Gilliam?’ And, I’d be like, no, no. I used to make up crap all the time. In the film industry I just wanted to show that I could do it myself; that it wasn’t about being Terry’s daughter or anything. It got difficult when I would be on a film set and someone who knew me from when I was younger would come over, pinch my cheek and go, “Hello, Amy, how are you? I remember when you were five years old.” It was like, Oh, God, bright red face, because now people realize I’ve been making up rubbish and I AM Terry’s daughter (we both laugh).

I’m always about knowing enough about the job. I always wanted to learn as much as I could. I have no memory. People tell me, “I remember when you told me you wanted to produce movies.” And, I’m like, I don’t remember ever saying that. So, I suppose I have reached my first big goal. I’m not ready to suggest that there is another one like what you’re asking.

TS: Do you think that you’ll stick with producing for a while?

AG: I don’t know. I’m obviously going to say yes.

TS: The reason that I ask is that I know how much work you put into “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus” and it had to be an incredible learning experience. I just wondered if you were going to continue in this direction for a bit or if you chose to be part of so many facets of the business so if you want to, you can move into other areas. I think it’s an invaluable education. I’ve done everything there is to be done on my productions outside of acting. There’s nothing I wouldn’t go back to. It’s part of the dedication to your craft.

AG: I think it’s important. I remember making a short film with my boyfriend and at those times you do everything, you know. You edit, you do the music. Everything. It’s the best, most valuable time because you are learning to do all the phases of the work and you can understand.

TS: It puts so much heart in the project.

AG: Yes.

TS: That’s what shows in “Doctor Parnassus”. I have been so touched by the camaraderie between everyone I’ve spoken to. It really shows in this film. It makes it stand out in a way with which other films simply cannot compete. It’s not just that you all dealt with a horrible tragedy, that camaraderie and dedication was there before Heath passed away.

AG: Yeah. I’ve worked on films where it’s just a job, you know. Film making is hard. However easy the film is, it’s always hard. You’ve got long hours. You’re away from your family. Whatever job you’re in there are these things, but if it’s just like “going to work”, “just a job” every day, it can show in a movie. Having a team of people, where from day 1, on “Parnassus” everyone was coming onboard and being a part of it, even before the tragedy, it was amazing. We were all there because we love Terry and we all know that we can be creative. It’s such an incredibly creative journey. Everyone that is coming on board is doing so because they are excited about the project, so to me, that’s real film making and that makes a great movie. The feeling from everyone from the T-boy, to the grips, to the electricians…everyone has belief in the project and it starts showing in the film and then, obviously, when the tragedy happened, the belief in the film and the love between everyone…it was amazing to see the way it all came together. It was so hard after we got ourselves back on track.

TS: I can’t imagine. Trying to move forward to do this for Heath when all of you were in the throes of early grief, had to be so difficult.

AG: I remember, the actors weren’t even in Vancouver yet. Some of the crew wasn’t even there yet. Then the news came about Heath. I remember getting everyone back on track and to Vancouver. When we actually began shooting again, it was really hard because all of us had been there with Heath and now we weren’t. It took everyone their own time and way to deal with it, but everyone could come back and know that we were all there for each other and for the film and for many things. It was pretty amazing.

TS: Going back to you being Terry’s daughter, one cannot help but notice, that even though Terry may be your dad, you stand on your own with this project and your passion for it is for many more reasons than that. You produced this film because you loved IT.

AG: I am truly so passionate about this project and care so much for it, but not just because it’s my dad. It’s an amazing project and we all want to see Terry Gilliam films because they’re so creative and so radical. That, to me, is the kind of movie I want to go and see. As much as it was incredibly emotional and not just because of the tragedy, I am also dealing with a director who happens to be my father. All those worlds are very entangled and can be very difficult. At the same time, it was great because you are all believing in and wanting the same thing. You’re fighting for the same thing, but any relationship or situation where you are close to that person can cause other problems.

TS: I work with my daughter frequently in producing and I know how very separate the relationship between both of us is as to producing partner/actor/director and mother/daughter must be kept. How has this worked between you and Terry?

AG: I’m not scared to go to the director and say, hey, you can’t afford that or we can’t afford that. As a producer it is your job to protect your director…to give the director what he wants. When you can’t afford it, you have to be able to say to your director, we can’t do that and we have to think of another solution, because you don’t want your film to be over budget and your director doesn’t want the film to be over budget. So, you go to your director and say we have to go another way. Sure, he might get a bit pissed off or go ballistic, but creatively he’s being asked to reconsider his vision. So, any artist is going to get pissed off or upset. Under the circumstances, sometimes he gets better visions or ideas, it’s just that the initial thing is to be angry. I’ve been with him for so long and I’ve watched people be scared to go to Terry Gilliam, but to me he’s just the director so I’m not in awe of this person. I’m not scared of this person, so I’m not scared to say things. That fear can be the worst thing because you can get into bigger problems, bigger difficulties because of it. It’s great that I protect this person, but obviously there were days when he wasn’t too happy with it. There were days he was screaming down the phone at me. Producers aren’t people you love all the time.

TS: Timmy would like to ask you has the process of getting “Doctor Parnassus” out to as many countries and fans as possible affected your business relationship with Terry and would you like to continue working with him?

AG: I’m not really involved in the publicity. That’s what’s so crazy about movies is that it’s such a long process for the director and often, producer. In the director/producer team my dad and I have had on this film, I’m not going to walk away just because he’s doing publicity. It’s just as important for me as well because I want to be sure the film is marketed and is put out and is successful.

We’ve been a team all the way through, you know. Starting this movie, this child is growing and growing and growing and the hard thing is when you start handing your child to the distributors. Then it’s in their hands, although, thankfully we’ve been involved and tried to push thoughts and ideas. So, I think, my relationship with my dad…My dad is my dad and he will always be my dad. We have ups and downs, as anyone does in business, but the relationship will always be amazing, I think. I’m very lucky that is how it is and I wouldn’t let business or anything ever make our relationship bad. I don’t think that will ever happen.

I think that it’s great for both of us to have each other when doing publicity. I get to go with him and end up doing things that maybe producers wouldn’t be used to doing.. Things like making sure that things are in place for him to make his time comfortable because he’s the one doing all the talking and being in one room hours and hours, all day long answering the same questions. I think it’s important for him to have a family member and his producer caring as much about the film as he is and making sure that it is getting dealt with thoughtfully.

It will never affect my relationship with my dad, no. I think if our relationship was going to be affected it would have happened during the making of the movie.

TS: I would think, if anything, it would make the relationship stronger.

AG: Yeah. Now you are getting to…well, it’s a different pressure. It’s more enjoyable. When you get to walk down that red carpet and listening to people talk about your movie and saying how great it is and you’re getting fans cheering…This is an amazing and emotional feeling and it’s great to be there with your dad. After what we went through, to have that together is just wonderful.

TS: I think that feeling has translated to the fans as well. Your approach, as the producer of this film, has been to embrace the fans, the importance of the internet. The fans reached out to you and instead of pulling away and just taking their support for granted, you and Terry, the cast and crew, reached back to them. I think this has formed a wonderful and rare relationship between you guys and the fans who were so used to being held at arms length by the industry. You have made them see and feel that this is “our” film.

AG: It is, you know. “Our” film. I just recently watched the video with my brother and sister that we made to the fans on the support site at the London premier. It’s true what I said there, we made the movie, but now we need our fans and we need to embrace everyone and these are the people who are going to help us. Now, it is us needing to support you guys. It’s fun and it’s enjoyable. You get the most honesty from the fans and such great support. It’s a great feeling because you know you’re not doing it on your own and you’re embracing them and it helps you. It truly is a great, great thing. What can I say…It’s all about that.

TS: What is your favorite memory from day 1 of starting Dr. Parnassus?

AG: This is hard. (We both laugh) I have a lot of great memories. There’s a great memory when we were trying to put the money together. I was in Vancouver and we still hadn’t got our lead, our “A List” actor to play Tony. I wake up one morning in Vancouver with a phone call from Heath and he said to me, “Amy…Amy the producer, I’m going to play Tony!” I remember thinking, Oh, my God, this is amazing!” It was amazing. It was one of the most exciting moments. I remember running into the office going, we’ve got our lead…it’s going to be easy…we’re going to get our money. It was all quite moving. That was the greatest start. That was the first thing that started the wheels turning in a really big way. There are a lot of good memories.

Another splendid memory…Well, all the way through filming, it’s hard, and lots of good things are happening but that first day of photography, Wow. When you’re actually on that set, after being through hell and back to get to that point, and you are rolling film…now THAT is a great memory. For the producer and director, as a team, to get to that point is so hard, so to be there for that is incredible.

TS: Raychella would like to ask you, “What was your favorite scene to watch being shot, or when viewing the final movie?”

AG: All of it. Seeing the film when it was finished is a great memory because on this movie we were up against a lot. There wasn’t a moment when anyone could breathe. There was constant pressure from everyone, all the way out through post-production. There were huge, huge, huge things to deal with; insurance claims with the losses of Bill (Vince) and Heath and the never ending pressure of money and sorting things out. So, when you have to deliver a movie by a certain date the pressure is on. We were having to do things back to front in post-production. Normally, you mix a film once your visual effects are in place and everything’s ready, but because we didn’t have the money from the insurance company yet, we couldn’t pay the visual effects so they were delayed. So, we mixed the movie and recorded the score for the film without the visual effects and we were putting sound effects in places where we THOUGHT the visual effects would be, so that’s where the sound would be. There are just so many things about how production had to deal with incredibly difficult situations and how our director had to think fast, on the ball…everyone had such pressure on them. We were ripping out sets without looking at the dailies because we had to move off that stage and start re-building. It was constant and went through post-production as well.

Then we finally, by the skin of our teeth, delivered a movie (we’re checking prints in Vancouver 24 hours before we ship it to America because there are all these deadlines you have to meet) and we’d already decided we were going to Cannes. You’re so stressed, getting everything ready and all of a sudden you are on a plane to Cannes. You get there and you are having these beautiful dresses and diamonds lent to you and for the first time you are going to show this film to the public.

Cannes is the most incredible red carpet you can imagine. Just, that moment, when we’ve got some of our cast, dad, family and friends and everyone. You’re standing on the red carpet, they’re announcing your name and playing the soundtrack to your movie and you’re walking up there… you’re just like, Oh, my gosh. It’s the start of a crazy journey. Then, when it finishes, you have a fifteen minute standing ovation…it was just…WOW! It is the first time you watch the film with the audience and to feel the reaction…

Another wonderful memory of seeing the film was when I went to show the film to the actors. I went and showed it to Colin and I went and took it to Tom Waits, then I traveled around a bit of America with the film showing it to the other actors. To see the joy on their faces…that is a pretty incredible time. It’s scary because you never know what people will think. To have such a wonderful reaction from everyone was like, Wow! It’s such a roller coaster of emotions and you’re always hoping you’re going to be ok as a result of your work.

TS: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law should be so proud of what they did when they took over for Heath. All three of them were amazing.

AG: Absolutely. What they brought when they came…see what I mean, I could talk about this for hours and days, because it brings back so many memories.

TS: Wonderful memories. Isn’t it nice to be talking sweet memories?

AG: Yeah, exactly. You know, Johnny, Jude and Colin…when they all came to the set, it was amazing. Obviously, we had known Johnny and I had worked with Jude Law before on “Sky Captain – The World Of Tomorrow” (Amy was Angelina Jolie’s stand-in on this film), not that he would actually remember (she laughs). But, Colin, none of us knew. Colin was the first person to come to film. To me and for everyone it was like, Oh my God, it’s just incredible that these people have stepped into these shoes, put themselves in this position and we are so honored.

The day that Colin walked on the set, I’d never met him before – hadn’t even spoken to him, I literally went over to him and gave him this massive hug. Then I was like, oh hi, I’m the producer. (both laugh). It was just so overwhelming that he had come and he was going to do it. It was amazing. Those three guys. Wow.

TS: These are just some of the many things that make this movie so amazing and so very special. I’m really glad that we have the opportunity here to let the fans know more about this. I feel there has been such a waste of breath on the so-called, beaten to death horse, of the so called Gilliam curse, when there was such pertinent and wonderful stuff happening here. I’m like – Hello, let’s tell it like it really is and stop with the drummed up BS.

AG: The Gilliam curse thing drives me mad. It’s such a load of crap. It’s like they can’t help to keep from saying it, but no one knows why they’re saying it. I’m like, what is this?

TS: Yeah, exactly. (laughing)

AG: I just saw a director achieve something incredible under the most horrendous circumstances, on a daily basis. I’d like to know another director who could come up with solutions as quickly and as ingenious and still keep the film on budget, you know.

TS: THANK YOU! Exactly.

AG: There were so many people involved. There’s Canada which was such a big help, the insurance, the distributors, the bank…all these people had to agree to keep going. It wasn’t easy to have all these different parties agree. And, obviously having a producing partner who wasn’t well (Bill Vince who passed away of cancer shortly after the filming was complete). Him and his Canadian team, it was always like, the challenges are great, but I think it kept Bill alive. I don’t know if you know when he died, but it was quite amazing.

TS: It was right before the film was actually in the can wasn’t it?

AG: It was in the can. He always told me once it’s in the can, you’ll be fine. We’ve just got to finish shooting this movie. And, it’s true. If you have that movie in the can, if there’s a problem, at least you’ve made your movie. He died just after we completed the model shoot which was the last bit of film that we shot. It was just incredible. Even though he wasn’t there for the model shoot, the fact that he stayed around to know that it was completed was amazing. I wish he had seen the film because he was such a huge, huge supporter and I couldn’t have done it without him at all.

TS: I’ve heard he was just a wonderful man. I think it was such a blessing that he was there.

AG: Absolutely. The day that I got my dad’s script he could see that I was going to make this movie. He was like a bull-dog; once he got hold of something he didn’t let go. He knew that was what I was going to do with the film and because he believed in me and he believed in the project, he was like, “Ok, let’s do it.”

TS: I’m like that with my own scripts. I’m like that about this site and film. I’ve been called everything from a Gilliam fanatic to a psychotic (both laugh). Many of us have. The fans are undeterred in their support of the film and Terry. Personally, I I’m passionate about film and Terry’s work and I’m determined to support it. (both laughing).

AG: It’s incredible to meet someone like yourself, that truly understands what it’s like to be so passionate that you won’t let anyone tell you no. And, if they try, you’re going to find another way to keep going. I don’t know many people like that and it’s such an amazing quality. However hard it is, fun and depressing, happy and sad; it is an emotional roller coaster, it’s incredible to have another one of us and you’re wonderful to have traveled with us.

TS: Oh, thank you so much. It’s a journey I intend to continue to make for many years to come.

AG: It’s an incredibly brave thing to do. It’s been like making our movie. You started alone then these wonderful people came on with you and all of you made something extraordinary.

TS: The fans are just incredible.

AG: Because it’s like jumping off a cliff. The more you jump off that cliff, the more things you see to make you scared of jumping again.

TS: True, but you have to be tenacious. That’s something I see in you. I admire tenacity. I hear you had a wonderful role model in your mom (Maggie Weston). Everyone says she’s just wonderful. Daniel Auber says she’s just amazing. He asked me, “Have you met Maggie? Amy’s just like Maggie.” (Both laugh).

AG: Yeah, I am. My mom’s kept us all grounded and sane and she’s an amazingly wonderful woman. We’re very lucky to have her.

TS: Lastly, Jodelle wanted to ask you, “ What is the significance of the name “Poo Poo Productions”?

AG: Poo Poo Pictures Productions, Ltd. is a Terry name choice and a name it has had for a long time. Another Terry amusement.

TS: Thank you so much for spending some time with us and sharing all these stories and memories. And, thank you so much for everything you’ve done to bring us “Doctor Parnassus”.

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In tomorrow’s Los Angeles Times the following item will appear stating that they are surprised at the fact that The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus has been so underrated in the USA and has not received more recognition. We totally agree with them. Don’t be left out in the dark. Go see The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus TODAY in the USA!

CLICK ON THUMBNAIL TO READ LA TIME ARTICLE ITEM

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Source: The 9th Soul

I watched this at Gateway mall right after we passed our thesis defense. I knew this film would be stunning but I never thought that it would be visually stunning. It mixes reality with dreams with a hint of desires and the sins that surround them. A must watch on the big screen.

REVIEW: I really enjoyed watching this film. I never expected it to be very magical since I never saw the trailers. Yes, I only saw the poster and thought “Heath Ledger films are always a must watch” and it was everything I expected.

The film’s beginning almost had me confused since I really had no idea what the film would be all about. I’ve never heard of the word “imaginarium” before but I must assume, after watching the film, that it would be some sort of container for imaginations. Imaginations are vast and no two are ever the same. I love the fact that this film explored the way dreams can be the basis of a person’s personality, desires, and the person’s ability to make the right choice despite most losing to temptation. Heath played the role, for the most of it, of a character that seemed to guide people who wonder of inside the mirror into the right path. It’s like having Virgil guide Dante.

I also like the fact that the film explores how one’s dream may cause someone else’s to be overwhelmed or be overcome by it. It shows how something good for one is not always good for everyone.

READ MORE HERE

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Source: Red Room

By Deborah Lake Monahan

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is a tribute to what movies can and should be, original, beguiling, and intelligent. There are dips in the narrative, but not gaping wounds as several reviewers have so unoriginally suggested. One can only imagine that some loss of continuity was inevitable once the decision not to abandon the project due to Heath Ledger’s death midway through the shoot was made. (despite the many directorial and production statements to the contrary). But it shouldn’t matter, not when we’re given offerings from the creative genius of artists like Terry Gilliam. This movie isn’t just a movie, it’s a statement; and in my opinion, destined to become a cult classic.

We shouldn’t whine, disparage, or in general throw idiosyncratic temper tantrums over little glitches in movies which give us a fantasy world we would otherwise be unable to envision or access. We should sigh, cry, and celebrate mythical minds like Gilliam’s, which almost always have their inspiration sliced, diced, and watered down to the barely palatable gruel that most often comes from Hollywood. The scripts and stories which make their way to Hollywood are evaluated the way Wall Street evaluates credit risk—No risk—or there’s, No dough- No go. Directors, writers, and producers like Gilliam struggle to create films that can inspire audiences to believe in the power of the imagination, to explore magical elements in our day-to-day existence, to conceive of worlds transformed by the unexplained rather than give in to the Hollywood Industrial Complex and hand-feed audiences crap on a cracker.

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EXCLUSIVE

By Theresa Shell

On Saturday, the Dr. Parnassus Support Site had the privilege of talking with The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus make-up designer Sarah Monzani. Sarah has been placed on the Oscar short-list for best make-up for this year’s awards. She also received a nomination this week for the BAFTA in the same category. Both for her work on The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. Monzani is no stranger to either award, having won both the Oscar and BAFTA for her phenomenal work on “The Quest For Fire” in 1983. In her career, Sarah has worked as make-up artist/hair designer or make-up designer on such films as “Interview With The Vampire”, “Evita”, “Valkyrie”, “Midnight Express” and “Bugsy Malone” among many others. I’m very excited about talking with this gifted artist.

Sarah Monzani is a brilliant artist and such a lovely person. She is witty, intelligent and a font of wonderful information about “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”. She made me feel so comfortable during our interview. I had a delightful time talking with her and I hope that you will enjoy the wonderful behind the scenes stories and facts that she shared with me which run through to the very last line of this interview. So, read on and learn about Heath Ledger’s battle of the contacts (“No, I wear them all the time.”), Terry Gilliam’s quest to make-up a ventriloquist’s dummy and the fact that there were 5 Tonys, not 4 in the film courtesy of the wonderful Sarah Monzani.

Theresa Shell: Was there a point when you were younger that you just knew, “I want to be a make-up artist and I want to be a make-up artist for film”?

Sarah Monzani: At 15 years old I did that. And, my father told me I had to get a proper job. He said, “You need a proper job. If you never make it to be a make-up artist, which I never think you will do, you need a job to fall back on.” He said, “Do you want to go to college?” And, I said, “No, I’ve been to school and I didn’t like that. Why would I go to college?” I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. And, he said, “Well, you have to get a job.” When I was younger there wasn’t an option. He said, “What do you want to do then?” I said, “I want to train to be a hairdresser.” And, that was it. I left school at 15, did my apprenticeship for three years which is very different from today because you don’t do three years now. The best place to enter the profession at that time was television and, you couldn’t enter without being able to do make-up and hair. So, having already done training to be a hairdresser, it was great for me. My first three months as a make-up artist I didn’t have to learn to do hair because I already knew. I applied when I was 20 and I was so lucky. I was chosen as 1 out of 100 or something.

TS: I find it amazing when a 15 year old is so certain of what they are meant to do in life. I have seen that it is the same situation with Heath, Daniel Auber, Terry. I think it is the way it is with a true artist. They just know.

SM: It’s true.

TS: I did an interview with Monique Prudhomme…

SM: Lovely Monique.

TS: Isn’t she the dearest thing? She brought to my attention was the fact that the character of Anton always had silver paint on his face somewhere indicating that he was Mercury.

SM: Yes.

TS: The next time I saw the film, I looked for it and sure enough, it was there in every scene of his. Are there other little things like that which are symbolic for the characters?

SM: You get an illusion that they (Dr. Parnassus, Valentina, Percy and Anton) live and apply their own make-up and hair for their stage performances in the wagon. With no proper washing facilities in the Wagon we always left bits of stage make-up on their faces adding to a certain amount of grime which was always there embedded in their skin.

TS: One of the things that really struck me was the subtle changes in the make-up for each of the Tonys. I really felt like each Tony, though basically having the same look, had differences in his make-up that further defined that particular Tony’s true soul. I didn’t think it was just the real life physical differences from actor to actor. Heath’s Tony was more gritty, world weary, sleazy in his make-up. His eyeliner was always smudged and undefined just as his Tony was undefined. We didn’t know who he really was. Johnny’s make-up was lighter, more suave and slick, Jude’s make-up was much lighter, dreamy… almost buoyant, and, Colin’s make-up to me was very calculated, very perfect and planned as was his Tony’s persona. Was that that my imagination or was it intentional?

SM: (Laughing). Very good, you’re very good. It was intentional. Certainly, the Heath side of it was the sleazy, heathen. Both Heath and I had worked out exactly what was going to happen when he had gone through the Imaginarium, so this was all pre-planned.

TS: Right.

SM: What’s so weird for me is the conversations we had about that before, we tried to put into the film after and in the strangest way it almost seemed to work better. I don’t even know if I’m saying that right because I don’t want to say it worked better because we didn’t have another way of doing it.

TS: I know what you’re saying. It did in so many of these…I guess you would call them turns of fate…that to me were a huge indication that, even in light of the tragedy, that the right decision was made to complete this movie. If it was not meant to be completed, I don’t think so many things would have fallen into place like they did.

SM: Completely. I have absolutely no qualms about that at all.

TS: In my love of details, I also noticed with Doctor Parnassus, for example that when he was nursing his hang over with the icepack on his head and they did the close up, you had put food in his beard. After having seen Mr. Plummer in person, I was really able to appreciate the changes that were brought about by the make-up.

SM: (Laughs) Yes.

TS: My reaction was like, “Well, the old drunken, slob!” What fun that must have been for you. I would think you would have had the most fun with Verne’s character.

SM: Verne Troyer IS Percy. That’s what I felt.

Verne had a great face to work with and he came alive with each character.
For Percy’s normal look was a pale base with a little eye definition and a small thumb piece, as with all the actors Percy also had our dirt and grime effect.

Percy’s many stage characters we reflected the costume theme. With all Percy’s stage make-ups we used black grease paint in different ways.

We first see Percy on stage dressed as a bug, we used black grease paint all around his eyes taking it from the inside corners up and over the brow bone to create a bug eye affect.

With the Demon costume Percy’s eyebrows were very exaggerated, starting either side of his nose painted with sweeping upwards spikes to create a demonic appearance.

TS: He was actually the first person I spoke to from the film and he has been wonderful. He made himself so available to me.

SM: He was completely heartbroken…I mean we were all heartbroken when Heath died, but he was devastated. We all cried on a regular basis. He found it very hard being in the make-up trailer. And, then we had a double, a Heath double.

TS: Right, he did the scene where Tony was jumping onto the lily pads.

SM: He did so much. I don’t know whether you know all the bits. Do you know the film well?

TS: Extremely. I’ve seen it four times.

SM: You know the bit where Lily says to Heath (Valentina to Tony), “We’ll find you something to wear”?

TS: Yes.

SM: Heath ties something around his waist then puts on a hat.

TS: Yes.

SM: That was actually the make-up test.

TS: Really?

SM: If you look at the film, Heath is looking in the mirror. The person you are looking at from behind is the double, the person in the mirror is Heath’s face. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

TS: It is. He loved what he was doing on this film and working with Terry again.

SM: Yeah.

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