Minnesota claims its share of homegrown entertainment stars, from Judy Garland to Bob Dylan and Prince. But one who often goes under the radar is the internationally renowned filmmaker and sole non-British member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Terry Gilliam. Born in Minneapolis and raised right here in Medicine Lake, Gilliam has directed multiple feature films, including Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Gilliam has a new memoir coming out in October titled Gilliamesque: My Pre-posthumous Memoir, and rumor has it the book will include an extraordinary collection of never-before-seen artwork. It’s uncertain whether the filmmaker will discuss his childhood in Minnesota in the new book, but we dug up some of Gilliam’s previously published comments about his birthplace, where he lived until age 11. (Excerpts from Terry Gilliam Interviews by David Sterritt, Lucille Rhodes, 2004)
Terry Gilliam on his childhood home:
“It’s a tiny, tiny little place, out on Medicine Lake, and strangely enough it’s the one little area out there that hasn’t seemed to be touched by development … It was this wee little place, and you could barely squeeze a couple of people in, and there were five of us who grew up there … It’s kind of moving, in a weird way, because I have such a strong memory of the place and the roads and the houses, and they’re basically there, and it’s, somehow it’s the only area around Medicine Lake that hasn’t been touched, and I don’t know if it’s because my memory kept it intact or not.”
On the influence of his Medicine Lake surroundings on his work:
“I grew up in the countryside. We lived a few blocks away from the lake, so I was like Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. I almost always played outside … My father was a carpenter, and we used to build houses in the trees. We used to make igloos in the snow. It was so physical, I was so close to nature. In fact, I lived in nature, I lived surrounded by it. And that was how that little game of inventing and creating things with all you had around you came about. The ingredient had always been there.”
