Taking inspiration from Tom Waits, I’d be willing to entertain all actors and artists (notice I did not say celebrities) interviewing themselves for the next year. In a probing series of questions and answers posted on the Anti Records website, Waits gets right to the point…which is to say that, as always, he dances elegantly around it as well as over, under and in parallel universes to the point.

The whole interview is worth a read, but he does talk about his role in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Is it news? Not really. Don’t let that stop you.

I am the Devil in the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus–not a devil…The Devil. I don’t know why he thought of me. I was raised in the church. Gilliam and I met on Fisher King. He is a giant among men and I am in awe of his films. Munchausen I’ve seen a hundred times. Brazil is a crowning achievement. Brothers Grimm was my favorite film last year. I had most of my scenes with Christopher Plummer (He’s Dr. Parnassus). Plummer is one of the greatest actors on earth! Mostly I watch and learn. He’s a real movie star and a gentleman. Gilliam is an impresario, captain, magician, a dictator (a nice one), a genius, and a man you’d want in the boat with you at the end of the world.

Brothers Grimm? Favorite last year? Eccentricity breeds forgiveness. He also drops some favorite movie scenes:

Nic Cage falling apart in the drug store in Matchstick Men…and eating a cockroach in Vampire’s Kiss. The last scene in Chinatown…Lee Marvin in Emperor Of The North riding under the box car, Borgnine bouncing steel off his ass…When Mel Gibson’s Blue Healer gets shot with an arrow in Road Warrior.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will be seen sometime next year, but you can catch Waits on the road this summer if you live in the Southern U.S. Got my ticket. See you there.