Gilliam: 'Ledger taught me what acting can be'
Terry Gilliam has revealed that Heath Ledger taught him "what acting can be".
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus director has said that the late Oscar-winning actor showed him the essence of acting and insisted that watching Ledger perform was always "intriguing".
Speaking to Paste, the filmmaker said: "He just taught me what acting can be. I remember reading something with him saying I taught him how to play.
"But that’s what acting is. To me, he was always showing how fresh and playful one could be at the time. Watching him playing and having a good time was intriguing."
Gilliam also claimed that Ledger had great comedic timing and a genuine appeal to him on screen.
He added: "I think so, because I just gave him room to play and I don’t think he’d really developed his comic sense before, and he had great comic sense. His timing was exquisite. He could be really silly, and yet it was never jokey. It was never superficial. It was always solid.
"And that was something that I thought was absolutely extraordinary. And I think especially in something like Parnassus, he had a lot of room to play because Tony is such a comedic character. So he’s just setting up the possibilities for lots of directions to go into. But on the other side of the mirror, he’s a big fiend, unfortunately."
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opens in US cinemas on Christmas Day.
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