Terry Gilliam Talks The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Back To La Mancha

♦ Terry Gilliam talks about realising his dreams with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to Tripwire’s contributing writer James Mottram…

Q: Where did this obsession with Don Quixote come from?

TERRY GILLIAM: I don’t know. I’ve never even tried to analyse why I do what I do. There’s a line in the film that I wrote that I really stick by. Toby says we can go back to explain things to the police and Quixote says, ‘Explaining things? Do you think explaining things explains anything?’ And that’s my approach to why I do things.

Q: After all these years, is this the film you wanted to make?

TERRY GILLIAM: It’s a much, much better film than I planned to make twenty five years ago. Far better. Then the Johnny Depp character, he got a bonk on the head and ended up in the 17th Century with the real Don Quixote. Then I said, ‘No, that’s like A Yankee In King Arthur’s Court. We’ve done that stuff before.’ I liked the idea of building a backstory with Toby – a young guy with dreams, ambitions, innocence, and then success corrupts him.

Q: What kept you going to complete this film?

TERRY GILLIAM: Because people said ‘stop’. It works every time. Tell me not to do something, I do it! I should thank all those people – reasonable people – who all along said ‘Stop! Get on and do other things.’ I should be thanking them.

Q: Last time, the weather washed away your sets. Were you worried this time?

TERRY GILLIAM: It was so bizarre. We were outside most of the time. We were completely vulnerable to the weather. And my biggest fear was that if it suddenly rains, we’re doomed because we don’t have weather cover in so many instances, and the weather held true for the whole film and saved our ass. So I have to thank all of nature for the success of the film!

Q: What made you want to cast Adam Driver as Toby, the Sancho Panza figure to Jonathan Pryce’s Quixote?

TERRY GILLIAM: He was completely different from all of the guys I was looking for. Maybe it was that. Maybe it was me being perverse. Here’s a guy who doesn’t look like Johnny Depp, doesn’t look like a movie star…he doesn’t even behave like an actor. That’s the guy! Adam has a strange interesting face. It’s a very real face, as opposed to a perfect face.

Q: The film feels very Monty Python-like in places. Did you feel like you were going back in that world?

TERRY GILLIAM: No, that’s what I was trying to avoid but I failed in certain ways. There are certain moments I think: ‘Oh shit! I’m doing it again – same old crap!’

Q: Like Toby you’ve made commercials in the past. What made you stop?

TERRY GILLIAM: I was tempted too much. I don’t want to sit and spend what little talent I have left on selling dog food. It’s like Toby…commercials sell dreams and I’d rather be the dreamer than the seller of dreams. Because the dreams are so superficial – get that Honda Clio and you’ll get the girl! It’s bullshit! It’s very corrupting.

Terry Gilliam The Man Who Killed Don Quixote interview www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote doesn’t currently have a UK or US distributor