Terry Gilliam Says He Didn’t Have a Stroke, It Was a Perforated Artery

Let us first say how glad we are the medical issues Terry Gilliam was suffering from last week have worked themselves out in a non-deadly way.

Early reports from English and French papers had stated the 77-year old filmmaker had suffered a stroke, but was released from the hospital to rest at home.  All this happened during the waiting period to find out if his long-in-the-works film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote would be allowed to screen during Cannes Film Festival.

The French court sided with Gilliam, their deliberation was released the day after news broke of Gilliam’s health issues, and the film will close out the iconic festival tomorrow night.

Gilliam has since spoken to The Guardian about what the actual medical issue was, saying “It’s like I stubbed my toe. That hurt more, actually. It’s not actually a stroke; it’s something different with similar symptoms, a perforated medullary artery. I’m fine.”

He continued:

“I just kept going on and on. I’ve never been able to explain why I was so determined, obsessed to make it. After I point I realised that if you’re going to do Quixote you’ve got to become Quixote. You’ve got to have ups and downs.”

There was also a comment (kind of) about his poorly received out-of-context words from an interview about the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, which Gilliam said resembled “mob rule”. Obviously now he’s had time to think about how his words were taken, and offered this:

“My wife [the makeup artist Maggie Weston] has made me swear on my marriage certificate that I will not talk about this, so I have to obey her. Nobody read the actual article. They read the headlines, is all I will say.”

Once the film has finally screened, an almost 30-year journey for Gilliam, he says a long holiday is in order. “If my wife has her way we will go on a long holiday somewhere,” he said. “I think it’s about time. She and my daughter have really taken a lot of shit from me with this film, so I’ve got to mend a lot of fences.”

We’ll let you know if any additional news about the distribution of the film becomes available.