Director Terry Gilliam is known for movies that take strange, wonderful and sometimes indecipherable trips deep into the recesses of the human mind. His latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (read Blaine Kyllo's review of the film here), was to be just another in a string of mind-bending movies from the director who has brought us such previous brain teasers as Brazil, The Fisher King and The Brothers Grimm. But in the middle of filming, something happened that changed the direction of the film, the cast, and the director himself.

As everyone is well aware, the star of Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger, died suddenly while on a break from filming Gilliam’s movie. While the rest of the world mourned the loss of a potentially great actor, Gilliam was forced to decide how to finish a film that would now serve as a eulogy for Ledger.

CinemaSpy recently sat down with the famed director to discuss how a filmmaker finishes a project after his lead actor and good friend has passed on to an Imaginarium of his own.

CinemaSpy: There’ve been rumors that the Imaginarium that resides inside the mind of Dr. Parnassus is actually a peek into your own mind. Is there any truth to that rumor?

Terry Gilliam: I suppose when you decide you’re going to write something original, you think, "Where do I start?" And I’m such an egomanic that I usually think—why not start with me? When I start a project from scratch, I’m going to start with the things going on in my mind. Whatever films I’ve done in the past, I’ve identified with the characters in them. They’re all aspects of me that I’ve let go down different paths.  

CinemaSpy: Your productions always have such a mythology around them. Obviously, the story behind the scenes of this movie is tragic. Did Heath Ledger’s death energize the way you approached the film?

Terry Gilliam: Actually, it de-energized me. I just wanted to quit. I didn’t know if anything we were doing was going to work. But the driving force was that we were finishing the movie for Heath. The weight on us was the thought—"Is this going to be good enough to be his last movie?" That’s a terrible responsibility. It wasn’t until we got back to London and I could watch a cut that I realized it was going to work. It was a very strange experience. One that I hope I never have to go through again.

      The day after Heath died, I called Johnny [Depp] to commiserate because he was very close to Heath, too. I said, 'I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess the movie’s over.' And Johnny said, 'Whatever you decide to do, I’ll be there.' I realized later that that was the most crucial call that I made.       

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CinemaSpy: How did Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell come into the project?

Terry Gilliam: The day after Heath died, I called Johnny to commiserate because he was very close to Heath, too. I said, "I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess the movie’s over." And Johnny said, "Whatever you decide to do, I’ll be there." I realized later that that was the most crucial call that I made.  

CinemaSpy: Is that how the other actors came on board, as well?

Terry Gilliam: Once we’d decided what we were going to do, I started calling Heath’s friends. There were actually several incredibly well-known actors that wanted to help and couldn’t because of their schedules. It just worked out to be those three guys. But we had a hard time sorting everyone’s schedules out. Johnny was proving really difficult because he was prepping to make Public Enemies. Literally at the last second, that movie was delayed by one week. Johnny jumped in, we had him for one day, 3½ hours and then he was gone.

CinemaSpy: It seems like it was almost a creative solution rather than practical one, since Heath’s character enters the Imaginarium three times, to have three actors take the role.

Terry Gilliam: There was no one actor that could replace Heath. Johnny had to be first one onscreen. I’d been talking to Jude about the part before Heath was involved. We’d done a big presentation book to bring to Hollywood to try and raise money. And the scene with the ladders (a scene in the film that features Jude Law) in the book has Jude Law on the ladder. And boom. Reality and fantasy came together. And Colin already looks darker and more sinister than the other two. So he could play the ultimate bad one. Colin has said that at times he thought he was channeling Heath while he was doing it.  

CinemaSpy: Did you ever feel that Heath was with you on the set?

Terry Gilliam: No, but he was a very powerful spirit. Old and wise. I thought he was part Aboriginal. To have the kind of knowledge and wisdom that he had as a 20-something kid, it was extraordinary. My joke is that he didn’t die young. He was a couple hundred years old when he died.