Post by The Curse of Quixote on Aug 28, 2005 22:56:40 GMT -5
(I am apologizing right now that my English may be a bit off... and I might not have everything to the exact word, but I did my very best... and if you have corrections, feel free to let me know!!)
(Interviewer) I think Terry Gilliam is ….
(Johnny) Is insane
Is absolutely insane. Has said in one way or another, a Don Quixote film has been in his mind for like ten to twelve years, something like that.
Yeah, I think Gilliam’s been dealing with the ghost for about ten years.
How… I was wondering how long, or when you got involved, or maybe it was when you were doing Fear and Loathing with him? Did he mention Don Quixote then? Or?
No, when we were doing Fear and Loathing together umm, he talked about a couple of projects he sort of had been wanting to do… I think the Quixote thing came up that Tony had been writing the script again, been writing a screen play for it. No it wasn’t until maybe a year or so afterwards. But uh, I got the call and he sent me the screenplay.
But did you more or less meet him for the first time when you did Fear and Loathing?
That was the first time we worked together, was on… was on Fear and Loathing. Umm we met years before, I think I actually met Terry… twice before. Once in Cannes, which is a horrible place to meet anyone when the film festival is going on. And once in a Planet Hollywood here in London, it was the opening of the Planet Hollywood here in London. And I don’t know how the two of us ended up there, but I think that’s actually when we first met.
Yeah, but I mean presumably you’re very much friends now, aren’t you?
Yeah.
Was he one of the main reasons for you wanting to do The Man Who Killed Don Quixote?
Oh absolutely, I mean …yeah. Having experienced Terry Gilliam on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas…and loving that process, I really loved that process with him. There was a great energy, and uh… I think we worked very well together. Umm, I don’t know what the… I mean, the final product is the final product, I don’t know what that is. But uh, I think the creative process was very enjoyable. I really had a great time, and uh… yeah, the initial …the initial thing with Quixote was the opportunity to work with Terry again, and uh.. and then when he and Tony sent me the screenplay… I was just blown away by it, because I … I felt like I was reading this great book, you know? It didn’t read like a screenplay, it read like this beautiful, sort of …epic, hilarious poem, you know?
You obviously have something about dreamers, you make films about dreamers…
Yeah.
Don Juan Demarco
Mhm
And what’s the other one… that’s really kind of… Ed Wood, obviously is a dreamer. Is it …do you think there was something of that in this that you liked? Obviously the whole Quixote thing of…
Well certainly yeah… I mean the… yeah certainly there’s the Quixote, Servente’s Quixote as the.. as the basis, the real, sort of foundation we were standing on. And then Gilliam… Gilliam and Tony’s take on that… and uh, also the character, my character Toby Brossini. Uhm, being the complete opposite of Quixote, I mean really the complete, complete opposite. Toby being a product of.. of… of these times that we live in, I mean just a greed monster, just an absolute, you know, out to get all he can get for himself. Umm, so sort of that… the two of those, the two of those opposites, of Quixote this great dreamer, this chivalrous beautiful romantic, you know, kind of slightly crazy. And then there’s Toby this… machine, you know? This modern machine… this eating.. this, this, horrible, vicious, uh.. modern man.
And… and what is it exactly about Gilliam that, would make you want to work with him again? After the first time? Because you do get the impression both from his reputation and from watching Lost in La Mancha that the guy is… what did you call him… a lunatic.. uhh.
Well he is… he is a lunatic, but I mean that as a great.. great compliment, because..Terry in a lot of ways is very free. Um… he’s not, he’s not bound by ..umm the realities of …of this is possible.. well that’s not possible, you know? That kind of thing. Terry is a great dreamer, but he makes… he’s able to sort of put his visions into an arena and make them.. come true. He-he… and also one-one of the things that I found. Working with Terry. Because there is this myth about Terry Gilliam. There is this myth about him being out of control, in terms of budgets and whatever. This film maker who waits for this specific cloud formation and otherwise just won’t shoot, and wait for days and that kind of thing. There’s this myth of the irresponsible um… psychotic film maker Terry Gilliam. That’s absolutely untrue. He came in and did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for um… I think it was 18 or something… you know, it was nothing compared to what they are making films for out there.
Yeah, I mean he is… I mean, because of this film people are now saying… adding to that myth by saying, obviously Gilliam is a kind of Don Quixote figure. And I think he kind of half embraces that image himself and half knows that maybe it’s not exactly good PO for him.
Well there is that sort of …yeah. I think Ray Cooper said it best. “Enfant Terry.” Terry Gilliam, which he is. But at the same time, and as you see in Lost in La Mancha, he is an incredibly responsible film maker. At every turn he’s trying to do everything he can to-to-to shoot, you know? I mean, within reason. I mean it was uh-uh-uh Jean Rochefort who was very ill. So um.. at the same time he is trying to balance this production which is, you know… going down the tubes, rapidly.
Do you think there is some kind of comparison that can be made between Gilliam and Tim Burton, who obviously you’ve collaborated with a lot. You know, if not dreamers, but definitely kind of mavericks in some sense, visionaries even.
Absolutely.. um.. I think there are a lot, a lot of great similarities um.. between Terry and Tim. Um… and at the same time great great differences, you know? But both of them being yeah, I think … two of the most important film makers certainly in the last 20 years. Uhhh
What would you say some of the similarities are?
Well… I mean… they won’t… they won’t compromise their vision… they’ll work within the boundaries of what… of what Hollywood or cinema gives you ..to some degree. They’ll work within those boundaries, and they understand those and realize they’re limited, but there are certain restrictions, budget and so on and so forth, but they.. but they will find a way to make.. to achieve their vision to-to arrive at what they’ve set out to do.
And they’re not really top conformists are they?
No, no they’re not conformists, not remotely. No, I think these are two guys who you know… Terry certainly. Terry’s been doing it quite a lot longer than Tim.. um… who. I don’t think they know how to sell out. Which is beautiful, which is more beautiful than not selling out at all. I don’t think they understand, they couldn’t… it’s just not… not possible, you know?
And is that what attracts you to them, and maybe, I don’t know.. them to you?
I don’t uh know what attracts them to me –laugh- I don’t know what attracts them to me. Maybe they’re not attracted to me. Um… no I uh … what-what attracts me to them certainly …is is is… a respect, I mean uh a deep respect for their vision, for their uh strength… you know… their perseverance. I mean, I mean, it’s not easy to stay either crazy nor sane in Hollywood… it’s really not easy. Because umm.. they’d like to wrap you up in the same paper as everyone else, you know.. and and market you like that.. so uh… these guys have uh survived that. So I respect that… immensely.
Can you talk us through the shoot a bit… I mean now famously everyone will know it lasted 6 days. I don’t know how long before that you arrived, I mean, you must have been there for a little bit of preproduction, but if you could just talk us through. I’m curious to know to what extent it was obvious before possibly even day one of the shoot that the film would be, might be in trouble.
Certainly as soon as we… I got there… I don’t know how long it was before we started shooting … It wasn’t much… I think it was maybe a week or something, but I knew it was sufficient. I mean I knew it was going to be fine. Um. In terms of Terry Tony and I getting together and going through the stuff and making it all work. Um. So I got there in enough time. I know that Terry was sweating umm… Tony was probably concerned. The French producers were ripping their hair out… um… I think it… I think it became apparent that things were beginning to go sideways when we got the news that Jean was not well. The reports started coming in … I think it was initially something about an infection… prostate infection or whatever. And then it sort of turned into this other thing… and maybe it’s this… maybe it’s that. Then it became “oh it’s psychosomatic” and then it became “oh no he has this sort of double herniated disc” You know... so these wild kinds of assumptions…
He couldn’t even get on his horse could he?
He got on the horse, but once he got on the horse, he kind of … stayed on the horse. Because it was too painful to get on and off again. And he was really a trooper... I mean the guy really pushed it to the limit. I mean, it was frightening. However Vero …however stoic, you know.. whatever. There were moments you could really see it, he was truly in pain. And uh yeah… everyone was sort of getting very very worried. About him… you know, first and foremost, about him.
And what day of the 6 did the storm happen, the remarkable temptress it seems to have been?
The storm? Oh oh oh… the monsoon. With hail… with rocks… you know.. like that. I mean enormous… I remember getting.. arriving back to my trailer and my pockets… and the makeup girl… my makeup girl… our pockets were filled with ice. I mean, from the sky. It was absurd… um that was… first or second day of shooting.
And did this just come out of the bleu? Were you just shooting and the heavens sort of open up?
Yeah, I mean yeah… I remember the first… the first thing I was absolutely amazed with was the fact that …the fact that we were shooting on this military zone, this NATO um target practice range… I mean.. bombing, you know range… I mean F14s or F16s or whatever.. so initially I remember being completely shocked by the sound of this plane screaming in you know.. –makes sound- …that kind of thing …and like deafening… and the next thing you heard, and saw between the set where we were shooting and the base camp where our trailers were… you heard the planes scream in and then a bomb exploding you know… -makes sound- and then fire… you know you saw little –makes sound- blast of fire
So no one told them that you were there?
No, they knew… but the thing was… we had been told apparently early on that the location people and Terry or whatever had been told early on that this kind of thing would only happen between such and such of hours you know, and for a very short amount of time, a very short period of time. And uh.. it was an absolute lie… because these things just kept screaming in.. I mean, one after another. I mean, they were bombs… you know these little “test” bombs. Which I thought was pretty …fascinating… and then the next thing you know, you know… this beautiful day in Navara in ..in Spain and then these enormous black… thick… huge clouds sort of lumbered through and arrived. You covered yourself and it was over with… the next thing you knew, camera equipment, stunt pads… anything that wasn’t nailed down was floating away.
Gilliam was talking about the storm and he kind of seemed like King Leo remembering… because I think he walked out into the storm at one point?
He did, yeah. Because at a certain point when that happened it was kind of like, certainly there is nothing you can do… so Terry just said “smeep it!” you know? “Let’s have it! Give it all to me… let’s have it.” And he got it all.
When you um… when we watched Lost in La Mancha there was some fantastic glimpses of the film that would have been, might have been and there’s that great scene with the giants, people rehearsing with the puppets ….there’s a scene of you in a chain gang… I think it’s a chain gang?
Oh yes… in the chain gang yeah-yeah-yeah….
And frankly bizarre one of you fighting a fish… I mean is that… it was only 6 days but did you feel kind of like some exhilaration of what you were… like you didn’t know it was going to close when it closed? Where you quite excited when you were doing it?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, against all odds… against all the elements, against you know.. everything that was telling us to stop… very early on… it felt great, it really felt great. And it felt like it was going to be… an amazing film, a really funny film, a really profound film… really deep. Just a beautiful Terry Gilliam film… uh… in an odd way, like a best of Terry Gilliam film, you know? It was sort of like, you know.. incorporating this great… you know pythonesque feel. And then uh… Terry’s sort of… run away brain. You really had the feeling it was going to be great… really great. And yeah, um I felt really good about it, I felt like I had come up with a really interesting character, a really fun character. Terry felt good about the character and he was… terrific, you know it felt great. Like things like that, that magic moments where the director allows you to improvise with a dead fish. It’s that kind of stuff you live for as an actor. At least I do.
Was it also kind of a personal sadness about it in kind of the sense that –correct me if I’m wrong but… it would have been Vanessa’s first film in English and the first film that you’ve made together?
Yeah, would have been the first film Vanessa and I had made together, and um I don’t know if it’s her first film in English… I .. I don’t know
Where the two of you quite excited to work together, and was it quite sad in the sense that it didn’t quite get to happen?
Well excited that we were all going to be together.. you know to make a film with my girl at my side, and my daughter… at the time. So uh.. that was all great. At the same time we were also a little bit… you know slightly freaked out, you know about going to work together. Having to lie to one another in the day time on camera… whatever, you know that kind of thing.. it was a little strange… but I figured we’d get over it in the first couple of days.
Yeah, but you didn’t get that chance did you, obviously. I mean, did she shoot anything?
No.. um she shot only a test… a makeup.. makeup and hair test. A camera test. She was to work the next day, the following day. And then –whistle-
How did you feel when… well obviously, it’s been billed already as the first unmaking of a film… again, I think Terry gets a big.. you know, perverse kick about that… I’ve been first at something …this unmaking of ..documentary.
-laughs… Terry.
But.. I mean how did you feel when you watched it, was it kind of mostly sadness? Was it excitement of seeing the good bits… or what?
First thing, I remember watching it first time… a very early version …and thinking My God. I was so shocked that these guys had gotten so much, you know. I mean, that they’d acquired so much footage. In-a… in such a short amount of time… uh… and just had all the stuff to be able to put this together… it …I was just blown away by that. Uh… the reaction was… I mean, first of all was hilarious, I mean in retrospect … I mean watching the thing you know, happen again… it was very funny. You know.. the clouds and the planes and the this and the that. All of these impossible things, fighting the elements like that. Umm and then also yeah, I think it was very interesting to see Terry who is so initially in the film… initially so excited and-and-and rearing to go… here we go, this is it. Quixote.. wham it’s the whole thing… and then you see him slowly but surely you see him shrink, you know and you see a different human being you know.. transforms into this other thing you know.. this beaten man.. you know.
And in a sense it is quite tragic … I mean it’s really funny in places.
It’s very funny and very tragic. Yeah… and all horribly true… you know
Do you… I mean, last question really. I know that he is very keen to pick it up again, I mean he’s got to go through legal things and whatever first …umm, but he wants to make it, and he suggested that you will be there making it with him—
Oh, I’ll definitely be there! Oh yeah, if Terry wants to pick this up again and start, you know… right away, I’m ready.
And what’s the continue… are you kind of as obsessed as he is now? Is it the story.. is it him, is it everything?
It’s everything. First it’s him. I mean, if this is a film he wants to see happen, to make happen, I want to be there. Umm and I think it’s going to be a great film, I think we can do it. I think we can do a beautiful, very funny… great, Terry Gilliam film and I … I’d love to be involved on any level.
And there is the Curse of Quixote.
There is the Curse of Quixote.. but I think we’ve gone through that bit. That bit of the Curse of Quixote… let’s… and we survived… let’s see what comes next.
I’m sure we will. Well I look forward to seeing it.
Me too.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks
(Interviewer) I think Terry Gilliam is ….
(Johnny) Is insane
Is absolutely insane. Has said in one way or another, a Don Quixote film has been in his mind for like ten to twelve years, something like that.
Yeah, I think Gilliam’s been dealing with the ghost for about ten years.
How… I was wondering how long, or when you got involved, or maybe it was when you were doing Fear and Loathing with him? Did he mention Don Quixote then? Or?
No, when we were doing Fear and Loathing together umm, he talked about a couple of projects he sort of had been wanting to do… I think the Quixote thing came up that Tony had been writing the script again, been writing a screen play for it. No it wasn’t until maybe a year or so afterwards. But uh, I got the call and he sent me the screenplay.
But did you more or less meet him for the first time when you did Fear and Loathing?
That was the first time we worked together, was on… was on Fear and Loathing. Umm we met years before, I think I actually met Terry… twice before. Once in Cannes, which is a horrible place to meet anyone when the film festival is going on. And once in a Planet Hollywood here in London, it was the opening of the Planet Hollywood here in London. And I don’t know how the two of us ended up there, but I think that’s actually when we first met.
Yeah, but I mean presumably you’re very much friends now, aren’t you?
Yeah.
Was he one of the main reasons for you wanting to do The Man Who Killed Don Quixote?
Oh absolutely, I mean …yeah. Having experienced Terry Gilliam on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas…and loving that process, I really loved that process with him. There was a great energy, and uh… I think we worked very well together. Umm, I don’t know what the… I mean, the final product is the final product, I don’t know what that is. But uh, I think the creative process was very enjoyable. I really had a great time, and uh… yeah, the initial …the initial thing with Quixote was the opportunity to work with Terry again, and uh.. and then when he and Tony sent me the screenplay… I was just blown away by it, because I … I felt like I was reading this great book, you know? It didn’t read like a screenplay, it read like this beautiful, sort of …epic, hilarious poem, you know?
You obviously have something about dreamers, you make films about dreamers…
Yeah.
Don Juan Demarco
Mhm
And what’s the other one… that’s really kind of… Ed Wood, obviously is a dreamer. Is it …do you think there was something of that in this that you liked? Obviously the whole Quixote thing of…
Well certainly yeah… I mean the… yeah certainly there’s the Quixote, Servente’s Quixote as the.. as the basis, the real, sort of foundation we were standing on. And then Gilliam… Gilliam and Tony’s take on that… and uh, also the character, my character Toby Brossini. Uhm, being the complete opposite of Quixote, I mean really the complete, complete opposite. Toby being a product of.. of… of these times that we live in, I mean just a greed monster, just an absolute, you know, out to get all he can get for himself. Umm, so sort of that… the two of those, the two of those opposites, of Quixote this great dreamer, this chivalrous beautiful romantic, you know, kind of slightly crazy. And then there’s Toby this… machine, you know? This modern machine… this eating.. this, this, horrible, vicious, uh.. modern man.
And… and what is it exactly about Gilliam that, would make you want to work with him again? After the first time? Because you do get the impression both from his reputation and from watching Lost in La Mancha that the guy is… what did you call him… a lunatic.. uhh.
Well he is… he is a lunatic, but I mean that as a great.. great compliment, because..Terry in a lot of ways is very free. Um… he’s not, he’s not bound by ..umm the realities of …of this is possible.. well that’s not possible, you know? That kind of thing. Terry is a great dreamer, but he makes… he’s able to sort of put his visions into an arena and make them.. come true. He-he… and also one-one of the things that I found. Working with Terry. Because there is this myth about Terry Gilliam. There is this myth about him being out of control, in terms of budgets and whatever. This film maker who waits for this specific cloud formation and otherwise just won’t shoot, and wait for days and that kind of thing. There’s this myth of the irresponsible um… psychotic film maker Terry Gilliam. That’s absolutely untrue. He came in and did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for um… I think it was 18 or something… you know, it was nothing compared to what they are making films for out there.
Yeah, I mean he is… I mean, because of this film people are now saying… adding to that myth by saying, obviously Gilliam is a kind of Don Quixote figure. And I think he kind of half embraces that image himself and half knows that maybe it’s not exactly good PO for him.
Well there is that sort of …yeah. I think Ray Cooper said it best. “Enfant Terry.” Terry Gilliam, which he is. But at the same time, and as you see in Lost in La Mancha, he is an incredibly responsible film maker. At every turn he’s trying to do everything he can to-to-to shoot, you know? I mean, within reason. I mean it was uh-uh-uh Jean Rochefort who was very ill. So um.. at the same time he is trying to balance this production which is, you know… going down the tubes, rapidly.
Do you think there is some kind of comparison that can be made between Gilliam and Tim Burton, who obviously you’ve collaborated with a lot. You know, if not dreamers, but definitely kind of mavericks in some sense, visionaries even.
Absolutely.. um.. I think there are a lot, a lot of great similarities um.. between Terry and Tim. Um… and at the same time great great differences, you know? But both of them being yeah, I think … two of the most important film makers certainly in the last 20 years. Uhhh
What would you say some of the similarities are?
Well… I mean… they won’t… they won’t compromise their vision… they’ll work within the boundaries of what… of what Hollywood or cinema gives you ..to some degree. They’ll work within those boundaries, and they understand those and realize they’re limited, but there are certain restrictions, budget and so on and so forth, but they.. but they will find a way to make.. to achieve their vision to-to arrive at what they’ve set out to do.
And they’re not really top conformists are they?
No, no they’re not conformists, not remotely. No, I think these are two guys who you know… Terry certainly. Terry’s been doing it quite a lot longer than Tim.. um… who. I don’t think they know how to sell out. Which is beautiful, which is more beautiful than not selling out at all. I don’t think they understand, they couldn’t… it’s just not… not possible, you know?
And is that what attracts you to them, and maybe, I don’t know.. them to you?
I don’t uh know what attracts them to me –laugh- I don’t know what attracts them to me. Maybe they’re not attracted to me. Um… no I uh … what-what attracts me to them certainly …is is is… a respect, I mean uh a deep respect for their vision, for their uh strength… you know… their perseverance. I mean, I mean, it’s not easy to stay either crazy nor sane in Hollywood… it’s really not easy. Because umm.. they’d like to wrap you up in the same paper as everyone else, you know.. and and market you like that.. so uh… these guys have uh survived that. So I respect that… immensely.
Can you talk us through the shoot a bit… I mean now famously everyone will know it lasted 6 days. I don’t know how long before that you arrived, I mean, you must have been there for a little bit of preproduction, but if you could just talk us through. I’m curious to know to what extent it was obvious before possibly even day one of the shoot that the film would be, might be in trouble.
Certainly as soon as we… I got there… I don’t know how long it was before we started shooting … It wasn’t much… I think it was maybe a week or something, but I knew it was sufficient. I mean I knew it was going to be fine. Um. In terms of Terry Tony and I getting together and going through the stuff and making it all work. Um. So I got there in enough time. I know that Terry was sweating umm… Tony was probably concerned. The French producers were ripping their hair out… um… I think it… I think it became apparent that things were beginning to go sideways when we got the news that Jean was not well. The reports started coming in … I think it was initially something about an infection… prostate infection or whatever. And then it sort of turned into this other thing… and maybe it’s this… maybe it’s that. Then it became “oh it’s psychosomatic” and then it became “oh no he has this sort of double herniated disc” You know... so these wild kinds of assumptions…
He couldn’t even get on his horse could he?
He got on the horse, but once he got on the horse, he kind of … stayed on the horse. Because it was too painful to get on and off again. And he was really a trooper... I mean the guy really pushed it to the limit. I mean, it was frightening. However Vero …however stoic, you know.. whatever. There were moments you could really see it, he was truly in pain. And uh yeah… everyone was sort of getting very very worried. About him… you know, first and foremost, about him.
And what day of the 6 did the storm happen, the remarkable temptress it seems to have been?
The storm? Oh oh oh… the monsoon. With hail… with rocks… you know.. like that. I mean enormous… I remember getting.. arriving back to my trailer and my pockets… and the makeup girl… my makeup girl… our pockets were filled with ice. I mean, from the sky. It was absurd… um that was… first or second day of shooting.
And did this just come out of the bleu? Were you just shooting and the heavens sort of open up?
Yeah, I mean yeah… I remember the first… the first thing I was absolutely amazed with was the fact that …the fact that we were shooting on this military zone, this NATO um target practice range… I mean.. bombing, you know range… I mean F14s or F16s or whatever.. so initially I remember being completely shocked by the sound of this plane screaming in you know.. –makes sound- …that kind of thing …and like deafening… and the next thing you heard, and saw between the set where we were shooting and the base camp where our trailers were… you heard the planes scream in and then a bomb exploding you know… -makes sound- and then fire… you know you saw little –makes sound- blast of fire
So no one told them that you were there?
No, they knew… but the thing was… we had been told apparently early on that the location people and Terry or whatever had been told early on that this kind of thing would only happen between such and such of hours you know, and for a very short amount of time, a very short period of time. And uh.. it was an absolute lie… because these things just kept screaming in.. I mean, one after another. I mean, they were bombs… you know these little “test” bombs. Which I thought was pretty …fascinating… and then the next thing you know, you know… this beautiful day in Navara in ..in Spain and then these enormous black… thick… huge clouds sort of lumbered through and arrived. You covered yourself and it was over with… the next thing you knew, camera equipment, stunt pads… anything that wasn’t nailed down was floating away.
Gilliam was talking about the storm and he kind of seemed like King Leo remembering… because I think he walked out into the storm at one point?
He did, yeah. Because at a certain point when that happened it was kind of like, certainly there is nothing you can do… so Terry just said “smeep it!” you know? “Let’s have it! Give it all to me… let’s have it.” And he got it all.
When you um… when we watched Lost in La Mancha there was some fantastic glimpses of the film that would have been, might have been and there’s that great scene with the giants, people rehearsing with the puppets ….there’s a scene of you in a chain gang… I think it’s a chain gang?
Oh yes… in the chain gang yeah-yeah-yeah….
And frankly bizarre one of you fighting a fish… I mean is that… it was only 6 days but did you feel kind of like some exhilaration of what you were… like you didn’t know it was going to close when it closed? Where you quite excited when you were doing it?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, against all odds… against all the elements, against you know.. everything that was telling us to stop… very early on… it felt great, it really felt great. And it felt like it was going to be… an amazing film, a really funny film, a really profound film… really deep. Just a beautiful Terry Gilliam film… uh… in an odd way, like a best of Terry Gilliam film, you know? It was sort of like, you know.. incorporating this great… you know pythonesque feel. And then uh… Terry’s sort of… run away brain. You really had the feeling it was going to be great… really great. And yeah, um I felt really good about it, I felt like I had come up with a really interesting character, a really fun character. Terry felt good about the character and he was… terrific, you know it felt great. Like things like that, that magic moments where the director allows you to improvise with a dead fish. It’s that kind of stuff you live for as an actor. At least I do.
Was it also kind of a personal sadness about it in kind of the sense that –correct me if I’m wrong but… it would have been Vanessa’s first film in English and the first film that you’ve made together?
Yeah, would have been the first film Vanessa and I had made together, and um I don’t know if it’s her first film in English… I .. I don’t know
Where the two of you quite excited to work together, and was it quite sad in the sense that it didn’t quite get to happen?
Well excited that we were all going to be together.. you know to make a film with my girl at my side, and my daughter… at the time. So uh.. that was all great. At the same time we were also a little bit… you know slightly freaked out, you know about going to work together. Having to lie to one another in the day time on camera… whatever, you know that kind of thing.. it was a little strange… but I figured we’d get over it in the first couple of days.
Yeah, but you didn’t get that chance did you, obviously. I mean, did she shoot anything?
No.. um she shot only a test… a makeup.. makeup and hair test. A camera test. She was to work the next day, the following day. And then –whistle-
How did you feel when… well obviously, it’s been billed already as the first unmaking of a film… again, I think Terry gets a big.. you know, perverse kick about that… I’ve been first at something …this unmaking of ..documentary.
-laughs… Terry.
But.. I mean how did you feel when you watched it, was it kind of mostly sadness? Was it excitement of seeing the good bits… or what?
First thing, I remember watching it first time… a very early version …and thinking My God. I was so shocked that these guys had gotten so much, you know. I mean, that they’d acquired so much footage. In-a… in such a short amount of time… uh… and just had all the stuff to be able to put this together… it …I was just blown away by that. Uh… the reaction was… I mean, first of all was hilarious, I mean in retrospect … I mean watching the thing you know, happen again… it was very funny. You know.. the clouds and the planes and the this and the that. All of these impossible things, fighting the elements like that. Umm and then also yeah, I think it was very interesting to see Terry who is so initially in the film… initially so excited and-and-and rearing to go… here we go, this is it. Quixote.. wham it’s the whole thing… and then you see him slowly but surely you see him shrink, you know and you see a different human being you know.. transforms into this other thing you know.. this beaten man.. you know.
And in a sense it is quite tragic … I mean it’s really funny in places.
It’s very funny and very tragic. Yeah… and all horribly true… you know
Do you… I mean, last question really. I know that he is very keen to pick it up again, I mean he’s got to go through legal things and whatever first …umm, but he wants to make it, and he suggested that you will be there making it with him—
Oh, I’ll definitely be there! Oh yeah, if Terry wants to pick this up again and start, you know… right away, I’m ready.
And what’s the continue… are you kind of as obsessed as he is now? Is it the story.. is it him, is it everything?
It’s everything. First it’s him. I mean, if this is a film he wants to see happen, to make happen, I want to be there. Umm and I think it’s going to be a great film, I think we can do it. I think we can do a beautiful, very funny… great, Terry Gilliam film and I … I’d love to be involved on any level.
And there is the Curse of Quixote.
There is the Curse of Quixote.. but I think we’ve gone through that bit. That bit of the Curse of Quixote… let’s… and we survived… let’s see what comes next.
I’m sure we will. Well I look forward to seeing it.
Me too.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks
And you claim to be bad at English 
That was so cool! Thank you so much for typing that out. Johnny is not the easiest person to transcribe, I know from experience ;D. Your English seems pretty darn impressive to me 
Thanks again 
No one else can pull off "You know?" after every phrase and still have my complete listening delight
