Matt Damon to make bald cameo in Terry Gilliam film

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This article titled “Matt Damon to make bald cameo in Terry Gilliam film” was written by Ben Child, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 11th October 2012 10.47 UTC

Matt Damon is set to make a follically challenged appearance in Terry Gilliam’s forthcoming dystopian fantasy The Zero Theorem, the actor has revealed.

Speaking to the Vulture blog, Damon said he was looking forward to working with Gilliam for the first time in a decade. The pair previously collaborated on the US-born director’s 2005 adventure-fantasy The Brothers Grimm.

Damon said the former Python had been keen to make use of his recently shaved pate: Damon cut all his hair off for an upcoming science fiction project, Elysium. The Bourne Ultimatum star said his role in Gilliam’s film would be a small one, but added that he would “do anything for Terry”.

“I wrote Terry this whole email, because we had this whole conversation about what the character would look like,” Damon said. “Because the story takes place in the future, he had a specific look that he wanted.

“But then I had to [points to shaved head], and I said, ‘Terry, what should we do?’ And he said, ‘Actually, we can take advantage of the fact that your head is shaved. Why don’t we change your hairline?’ So he mocked up a picture and sent me a real receding hairline, with white spiked hair. ‘We might as well take advantage of the fact that you’re bald and really do something, present you in a way you’ve never been seen before.’”

Damon’s cameo recalls that of Tom Cruise as the balding, foul-mouthed Hollywood producer Len Grossman in Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. Johnny Depp also went bald for his turn as Hunter S Thompson in Gilliam’s 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The Zero Theorem, a fantasy starring Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz as an eccentric computer genius trying to discover the meaning of life, is about to start shooting in Bucharest. The film also features Tilda Swinton and David Thewlis in undisclosed roles. Gilliam said recently: “The main character is literally living in this burnt-out chapel which one could take as a metaphor for old beliefs and old systems. He’s a computer genius but he’s just sitting there waiting for a phone call, which he’s hoping will give meaning to his life.

“It really is about relationships, and discovering what’s really important in life … two-thirds of it – if not more – take place in a ruined chapel.”

Gilliam has also revealed the look of the chapel, as well as various other buildings that will feature in the film, on his Facebook page. The Zero Theorem will be the director’s first full-length work since 2009′s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

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