How Many Tonys Does One Film Need

Every so often the internet presents you with something that takes a moment to parse as real. This was one of those times. I was looking into a film called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus—which already had my attention, partly because Lily Cole is in it—and then I kept reading the cast list. Johnny Depp plays Tony. Jude Law plays Tony. Colin Farrell plays Tony. Heath Ledger plays Tony. Who the hell is Tony, and why does he need four bodies?

My first instinct was hoax. A viral marketing gag, some April Fool’s stunt that had outlived its shelf life. Then I found an early trailer that looked too carefully made to be fake, and then another that looked genuinely cinematic, and then IMDb had a full entry with crew, runtime, everything. Terry Gilliam directing. Of course. Only Gilliam could construct something like this without it collapsing under its own absurdity.

The explanation, once I pieced it together: Heath Ledger died mid-production, and rather than abandon the film, Depp, Law, and Farrell each stepped in for the sequences inside the magical mirror at the story’s center. The conceit of the film actually accommodates it—different actors, different reflections of the same soul. It’s an elegant solution to a devastating problem, and knowing that while watching the footage makes it strange, heavy viewing. Lily Cole is very much in it and very much real. Some things you just have to take on faith.