Terry Gilliam On 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote', Monty Python & Robin Williams
(CBS Local)-- Director Terry Gilliam has always done things on his own terms.
It took the legendary filmmaker 30 years to make his latest movie called "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote." While many people told him to give up on his dream of bringing Don Quixote's story to the big screen, Gilliam persisted through several iterations of the film and created exactly what he set out to make.
"30 years is a long time and I don't even know if we got it right," said Gilliam in an interview with CBS Local. "We got it made. People all around me said to walk away and give it up and to concentrate on my career. I've never had a career. I don't like reasonable people telling me to do reasonable things."
Gilliam is most known for creating "Monty Python And The Holy Grail" back in 1975. That film provided the director with one of the most important learning lessons of his career.
"I actually learned a lot as an American coming to Britain," said Gilliam. "Getting into British humor is really different than American humor. In a simplistic way, the Brits are very good at laughing at themselves and Americans are very good at laughing at other people. I love the fact that Brits can be very self-deprecating and it may have to do with the loss of empire. In 50 years they went from being the biggest empire the world had ever seen to a little island."
While Gilliam has worked with many talented actors, one of his favorite experiences came when he worked with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges on "The Fisher King." Both Gilliam and Williams needed Bridges to bring them back down to earth.
"Robin was the best and he's so incredibly funny," said Gilliam. "Robin was one of the most extraordinary people I ever met because it was like he had an antenna. Every idea and thought the world has ever known would come in. He could use it all and then come up with something completely new. It was like that every day with him. Jeff is one of the great actors and it never looks like he is acting. He was the trick for keeping Robin and me from floating off into the stratosphere."
"The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" hits theaters for one day on Wednesday.
