Title: Through the Mirror
Author: Gaynor Flynn
Publication: FilmInk
Issue: November 2009
The first time that you see Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he’s hanging under Black friars Bridge in London with a noose around his neck. It‘s an incredibly disturbing moment given that it’s only 21 months since the actor was found dead in New York from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. When Gilliam first heard about the death of his friend, he was grief stricken. Then, of course, there was the film to consider. The news had barely flashed around the world, but investors had already begun to desert the sinking ship. “l didn’t see how we could finish it without Heath, because he’d only done approximately half of his roIe.“ says Gilliam wearily. “The financial people were dropping out, and I thought that everything was over. I was so depressed that I didn’t want to continue working. Luckily, I always surround myself with really good people, and they wouldn’t let me stop. They said, ‘Fuck you, you lazy bastard! You’ve got to fix this thing because of Heath.” So we went back td work.’
Gilliam, his 31-year-dld daughter Amy (who makes her producing debut on the film), and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini shut themselves away in a room and tried to think of a solution. “Amy was the one who initially said that we could do this. She was stubborn and pig-headed and determined to finish the film for Heath. Clearly she’s a chip off the old block” cackles Gilliam. Who came up with the idea of three actors replacing Ledger? “Well, we discussed for a long time whether one actor should take the part, but I felt that was impossible.” says Gilliam. “I didn’t think that it was respectful, and I didn’t think that it would work at all. The film‘s story involves a magic mirror, which Heath goes through three times. So I thought, ‘Okay, three actors would he the way to approach it.”‘
Still, Gilliam had his doubts. It was only when he contacted his good mate Johnny Depp that the director began to believe that the film was salvageable. “I called Johnny, and he said. ‘I’m there’, and at that moment. I thought that it might work.” says Gilliam. “Then I called other people who knew and loved Heath. Colin Farrell and Jude Law came on board as well, and worked for no money,” adds Gilliam. “They wanted their fees to go to Heath‘s daughter. They wouldn’t take a bean”
Set in modern day London, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus revolves around a horse drawn carnival show. There‘s a magician of sorts (Andrew Garfield) and a dwarf (Verne Troyer), but the main attraction is Dr. Parnassus {Christopher Plummer}. who is 1.000 years old thanks to a deal that he made with the devil {Tom Waits}. The deal requires Parnassus to hand over his daughter Valentina {Lily Cole} on her sixteenth birthday, which is only three days away. As the day looms, Parnassus is forced to re-evaluate his life and find a way to save his daughter. An amnesiac stranger called Tony {Ledger} joins the troupe and helps the doctor with his plans.
Gilliam first worked with Ledger in 2005 on The Brothers Grimm. They became close friends, each mentoring and inspiring the other, and both wanted to work together again. Was Gilliam nervous about Ledger’s family seeing the film? “I think they’ll be delighted by it.‘ he replies. “l got to work with Heath every day in the cutting room, so it’s slightly different for me. He doesn’t seem to be that long departed from us.‘
What was he like in the days before the tragic accident? There was talk that Ledger was broody and moody alter making The Dark Knight. “There was no darkness around Heath,“ says Gilliam. “He had chronic insomnia, and he‘d arrive in the morning looking exhausted. But within an hour, he’d be running circles around everybody else. Heath was enjoying himself so much. He was adlibbing a lot and loving every minute of the experience. I don’t normally allow that much adlibbing in my films, but Heath was just brilliant at it. Everybody was just energised by Heath. He was extraordinary, and he was almost exhausting because he had so much energy. He was coming up with new ideas every minute, and it was a joy to watch this part blossom.”
24-year-old British actor Andrew Garfield, who first came to notice in the powerful drama Boy A, which won him a BAFTA in 2007, is still amazed that Gilliam cast him. “He was just drunk, I think,” laughs the young actor. “I was lucky because I really, really wanted the part. I was brought up watching The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and all the other films in that vein, like Labyrinth and The Goonies and all these broad fantasies. To not only work with someone who I‘m hugely inspired by and in awe of was great, and my dad is a huge fan as well, which made it even better. I learned so much from Terry, and also from Heath,” Garfield continues. “I really learned from his approach, his stillness and his specificity. The most valuable thing to have as an actor is to he free from your mind imposing what you should be doing or what you should be thinking. Heath had that freedom of body and mind in abundance. I found that inspiring”.
Did Gilliam have to do any major rewrites once Ledger was gone? “The movie is what we wrote.” the director explains. “We had to change certain things to accommodate Heath not being there, but it was very important to stay exactly true to what we set out to make because Heath wanted that movie. There‘s one moment where Christopher Plummer’s character is saying, ‘A tale of romance, of comedy, of unforeseen death’, and he didn’t want to say that line after Heath died. We said, ‘You have to say it! That’s the line that we wrote; that’s the movie that Heath and I were making.’ The dialogue with Johnny Depp — ‘They will live forever, eternally young’ — was all written in advance as well.” continues Gilliam. “Heath hanging from his neck from the bridge was shot on the first day of shooting. I knew that it would be a very strange feeling for an audience to see that. We left it in because that was the movie that we were making, and that’s what Heath would have expected” he explains.
Where did the idea for the story come from? Is it something that Gilliam has been working on for years? “The genesis was basically just deciding one day to do something original rather than adapting a book.” Gilliam replies. “I thought that it would be fun to make a compendium of all of the things that I was interested in, from Python cartooning to Twelve Monkeys. I brought in Charles McKeown, who had written The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and part of Brazil with me. We hadn’t worked together for quite a long time, so I thought that would be fun as well. That’s how we started. I basically started rummaging through my drawers, looking for old ideas that were never used.”
Anyone who has followed Gilliam’s career will know that the director’s projects are often beset by monumental problems. It’s not a coincidence that many of Gilliam’s fantastical tales revolve around the struggle against a great power. The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus is no different. This time, the power is the devil himself. Gilliam describes it as “a self portrait.” The film is essentially about a man with a crazy imagination who wants to share it with the world, but the world doesn‘t want to listen. “I was feeling depressed, so I thought, ‘Okay, with The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, nobody wants my stories anymore, so they don’t want his either.’ I was feeling very sorry for myself. So we put that in there, and little by little, it became what it is.“ Has he ever sold his soul to get a film made? “Are you kidding? All the time,” Gilliam laughs. “What do you think I‘m doing now?”
There must have been times over the years when Gilliam thought that he was jinxed. Has he ever thought about giving up? “No. I haven’t,” he replies. “I don’t know why. It would be much nicer if I could just stop. I spend most of the time being depressed; I‘m not this upbeat normally. . this is not me! What you’re hearing is this guy that pretends to be me. I’m really miserable. Speak to my wife,” Gilliam laughs. “I’m also a fatalist. I start things. I try very hard to make them happen, and they either do or they don’t. This one did, and I’d like to think that Heath had a hand in that. He was my guardian angel. He made this happen; the fact that this film got made at all is a miracle, pure and simple”
