*JOE squeals with giddy excitement*
Groundbreaking director, ex-Python current Python star and all-round lovely man, Terry Gilliam, was in Ireland recently to take part in the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and our man Eoghan Doherty headed along to talk to the funny, energetic, perpetually-happy man about his latest film The Zero Theorem, his thoughts on fighting giant, mutated farmyard animals and there may have been a mention about a certain upcoming reunion thingymebobber…
And in what is possibly a career highlight for JOE, we somehow managed to make the Monty Python legend snort with laughter… and we didn’t even have to douse him in black market pepper spray to do so. First time for everything, eh?
The Zero Theorem is currently in Irish cinemas and, to get you in the mood, have a look at the trailer below…
JOE: Let me just make sure that this is recording properly…
Terry Gilliam: Good idea. I have a great skill of losing recordings. I’ve f*cked up more recordings than one should. I didn’t know I had these powers.
JOE: Well that’s a decent disclaimer that I can use; if anything goes wrong it was your fault, you f*cked it up. I can tell people that Terry Gilliam ruined my interview.
TG: (Laughs) You can just copy the answers from somebody else’s interview…
JOE: Hopefully the recording equipment will work and I won’t have to plagiarise anyone.
First of all, it is a huge honour to meet you Terry and congratulations on your new film, The Zero Theorem. Can you just tell me a little bit about how the film came to be and how you got involved initially?
TG: Was it five years ago? Something like that. The famous Dick Zanuck, producer to the stars, took me out to lunch quite a bit and tried to get me to do it. I was intrigued by it because Pat Rushin, who wrote it, clearly had seen every film that I’d ever made (laughs) and I thought “well, he’s written the compendium of Gilliam’s films, this is easy, I know how to do that.” There was a bit of that and then I thought, this could be fun.
It didn’t quite happen for a variety of reasons though. Billy Bob Thorton was going to be involved and we had a budget of $20 million and then, four years later, we do it for $8 and half million without him.
JOE: Is that one of the smallest budgets you’ve ever worked with since the earlier days of your career?
TG: Yeah, since way back when… I haven’t worked like that for 35 years. In a way, what happened was my quest for Quixote fell foul (Gilliam’s long-mooted project of Don Quixote) and the only thing that looked like a possibility was this film, The Zero Theorem, because Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures is as crazy as I am and he said “yeah, let’s do it.”
JOE: Having a similarly crazy person to yourself always helps…
TG: Yeah, and so suddenly from July, when we got Christoph (Waltz) involved, to October that was it. We started shooting in October.
I mean, you just don’t do that, especially since I hadn’t been preparing it for a year in advance and so part of the fun was just, “can I do this? I’m an old fart now, but can I work like a young filmmaker? Can I work under these very difficult, stringent conditions and make a film that looks like a $25 million dollar film?”
So that’s what happened and I gathered together around me a handful of people. We went to Bucharest, I really liked the Romanians, they were great, the crew was very good and we worked our asses off and somehow did it.
JOE: On such a small budget it must present fresh new challenges, did you have to re-evaluate your own style and think “OK, we just have to make this work somehow”
TG: (Laughs) Oh there’s no style! You just shoot!
JOE: There you have it folks, The Zero Theorem – a styleless Terry Gilliam film.
You’d an incredible cast to work with and you mentioned Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz. I also especially loved Tilda Swinton in her role…
TG: Yeah Tilda’s fantastic and there’s Matt Damon, Ben Whishaw, Sanjeev Bhaskar…
JOE: How do you manage to gather all of that talent on such a small budget?
TG: (Laughs) Call your friends! I’m in trouble here, we’ve got no money, “do you want to come here and work for a day or two for basic scale money!?” And they all turned up!
JOE: That’s got to make you feel good, knowing that all of these talented people are so willing to help out…
TG: (Laughs) I feel loved and the film feels loved. Actually, fuck the film! I feel loved! That’s the important thing!
JOE: Well, you are loved. You mentioned that Pat Rushin the writer clearly seemed to be a big fan of your previous work, and you can clearly see the thematic links between this film and Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. Do you think that he kind of based the lead character of Qohen (Waltz) on the lead characters in those films?
TG: Well, in this one the main character is never off the screen; it’s his story. When Christoph and I first talked about it I told him that, in a sense, he was going to direct the film and I was going to follow him because he’s the character and I wasn’t going to try and impose all of my pre-conceptions on this and that was it.
That’s really what we did and that, for me, was what was interesting because I wasn’t working on setting up really elaborate and beautiful shots; I was just shooting what was there. We built a world around him which was really rich and interesting and we just shot Christoph.
JOE: That’s the way it definitely feels; that Christoph is the centre of attention and that there are cameras everywhere, constantly following him around from all angles. It all feels very immediate and real as you’re watching it…
TG: That’s exactly it, that’s the way we wanted to shoot it.
Nicola (Pecorini), who I’ve worked with since Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and I just worked with this crane which was just moving as Christoph walked around and I really just enjoyed the freedom of that. It was never “oh this shot has got to be down here” and “everything’s got to be perfect in there” which is the way that I normally work.
That I enjoyed because it allowed the actors the freedom to act and not have to hit their marks or worry about that technical side of acting which can be very irritating – fuck all that!
We just filmed it and it was great. The main thing to do was create an atmosphere because we were stuck in that chapel for a long time so we tried to make it as rich as possible in there. In fact, in the editing room, there is not a single take where Christoph is not doing something wonderful.
JOE: As leading men go, he has such a presence. What is it that you, as a filmmaker and director, can spot in someone like Jonathan Pryce or Bruce Willis or Christoph Waltz to know that they’re the right leading actor for you?
TG: I don’t know, I’m just very instinctive about it. I mean, when I watch somebody I watch their eyes, I watch what they do, and I think “oh they’re good, they can do it.”
Christoph was always surprising, I actually had a theory about him. He was 52 years old before the world knew that he was a wonderful actor, so he has spent all of that life honing his craft and was probably really pissed off that he was not being recognised; he’s got a lot of shit inside of him, exactly what this character needs.
Then you stick him together with someone like David Thewlis (Waltz’s co-star in The Zero Theorem) and it is just magical. I just grinned the whole time that the two of them were together.
JOE: They’re almost like a comedy double-act and their scenes together are so well done.
With the leading man, you say that it is something “instinctive” within yourself that you can just feel. Have you ever had that Eureka moment during an interview where you know that the Irish interviewer sitting across from you is the next big thing, the next huge star? Does that ever happen?
TG: (Gilliam laughs at, not with, JOE for what seems like an eternity) Well I don’t know how many interviewers want to be actors, I never know that. I always think that they probably want to end their career doing radio or something like that (laughs right in JOE’s face again).
Tell me this, what did you think about Bainsley (Mélanie Thierry, femme fatale and Waltz’s other co-star in The Zero Theorem)?
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JOE: We were actually going to ask about her; do you have her number?
TG: (Laughs) I think that she is fantastic! She’s never played a part like this in her life! She normally plays these beautiful, reserved women that float through period costume dramas and a friend of mine mentioned her name. I realised that I had seen her in a film and so she did a take for me and she was so sexy and funny. I just said to her “look at Marilyn Monroe and Judy Holliday and then do what you want.”
JOE: Soooooo… what you’re syaing is that you don’t have her number to pass onto us?
TG: (Laughs) Oh I do have it! But I’m not going to pass it on! She’s happily married and has just had a second child so you’re too late!
JOE: Ah well, it was worth a shot. And finally, we realise that we’re here to talk about The Zero Theorem but…
TG: Ah fuck that! I’m bored talking about that now anyway!
JOE: What!? You should have told us that earlier and we would have asked you about other stuff instead! OK then, we’re huge Monty Python fans at JOE and really looking forward to the upcoming, highly-anticipated reunion. Are you looking forward to the reunion shows though?
TG: You know what? I’m actually refusing to think about it because I’ve got so many other things on at the moment on my plate! It will be about the end of May when I will then have to wake up and start thinking about what we’re doing (laughs).
JOE: Well we can’t wait. Finally Terry, the most important question of all; would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?
TG: (Laughs AND snorts!) I’m going for the horse-sized duck.
JOE: Any particular reason why?
TG: With one hundred little things nibbling I would know that I’m doomed. One big thing chomping though and I’ve got a chance – Mano-a-Webbo!
JOE: Mano-a-Webbo! The perfect face-off. Mr Gilliam it has been an absolute pleasure and the best of luck with the rest of your incredibly busy year.
TG: Thank you, thank you. It’s getting to that stage when I’m starting to have out-of-body experiences. Cheers mate and good luck in you’re acting career!
JOE: Thanks Terry, we look forward to your call!
And we never heard from Terry Gilliam ever again…
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