‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’: The role that Johnny Depp felt conflicted by after Heath Ledger’s death
In 2008, Johnny Depp received a film offer that left him feeling conflicted. On one hand, accepting the part would reunite him with a director he’d loved working with on a previous film. On the other hand, though, the only reason Depp was being contacted about the role was because the actor playing the part had tragically died a third of the way through production. Depp had a tough choice to make – should he help his old pal out by stepping into the breach – and if he did, how could he do it in the most moral way?
When Heath Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment in January 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription medications, fans and Hollywood insiders alike were heartbroken. The 28-year-old star seemed primed for the biggest year of his career – after all, that summer would see the release of The Dark Knight, which had been steadily gathering buzz for Ledger’s portrayal of the anarchic supervillain The Joker. While Ledger had finished shooting that film, he was in the midst of making his next project when he passed – and this threw director Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus into disarray.
Gilliam shut down the production of Parnassus while he tried to come to terms with the death of his young leading man. He still wanted the world to see Ledger’s work on the movie, which he believed was brilliant, but there was still so much of his role left to shoot. Then Gilliam realised the film’s fantastical nature could lend itself to some creative re-casting.
In the film, Doctor Parnassus is a 1,000-year-old wizard engaging in a battle of wits with the Devil across millennia. He runs a travelling sideshow with an attraction that allows people to step through a magic mirror, whereupon they either confront their demons or learn a more profound truth about their lives. Ledger played Tony, a stranger who has some role to play in Parnassus’ game with Satan.
Gilliam soon realised that the magic mirror gave him the perfect storytelling device to bestow Tony with some new forms in the film, so he placed calls to a few of Hollywood’s hottest leading men. The pitch was simple: did they want to help honour Ledger’s memory and finish his film in the process? Naturally, they all said yes, although it wasn’t without serious reticence. Ultimately, though, Gilliam got his wish, and in the film, Ledger’s Tony would pass through the mirror and become, at different points, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Depp.
In 2010, Depp told The Japan Times, “It was an awful, awful time. It was just hard to believe, confusing. But all that mattered was saving the work that Heath had done.”
Farrell agreed, admitting that the question of whether or not it was right to continue the film at all plagued him. However, he believed the deep well of love felt for Heath by everyone involved outweighed any negative aspects of the job. Law added, “I liked Heath very much as a man and admired him as an actor. To help finish his final piece of work was a tribute I felt compelled to make.”
Depp felt the same love and admiration for Ledger, an actor he claimed everyone in Hollywood knew was destined for great things. He mused, “He was moving from one triumph to another. He was someone to watch. His death set off so many ‘What might have beens.'” Ultimately, though, even though he wished he had been involved in the movie under less heartrendingly sad circumstances, Depp concluded that it was a privilege to be asked to “stand in on behalf of dear Heath.”
Indeed, all three actors were determined to do the right thing by Ledger and his family – so much so that they donated their paycheck for the film to his two-year-old daughter Matilda to help secure her future. Gilliam told The Telegraph, “That’s extraordinary and wonderful, and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people.’ And we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people who did extraordinary things to help.”
