To throw her in that pit of talented actors was quite amazing, because in some ways it shows she rose to it, because everybody was their protecting her and pushing her and it worked.
Casting Lily Cole was a "dangerous leap" for Terry Gilliam.
The British model stars in the director's forthcoming movie 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' - the film Heath Ledger was working on before he died - and stunned the rest of the cast and crew with her performance.
Terry said: "Lily was the most dangerous leap, because she was the least experienced, but I wanted somebody who was extraordinary. We are basically doing a traveling freak show is what we are doing here. We really want extraordinary people and that's what it is and she pulls it off.
"To throw her in that pit of talented actors was quite amazing, because in some ways it shows she rose to it, because everybody was their protecting her and pushing her and it worked."
The director - who was previously working on a version of comic book movie 'Watchmen' - also admitted he hates getting involved with movie adaptations of books because fans have too many expectations on what the finished film should be like.
He explained to Ain't It Cool News: "Fans are terrifying. I have always hated fans, because they have such high expectations.
"I thought 'F**k off, just f**k off. Let me f**k it up on my own. I can't put the weight of you people on my back!'
"It was like working on 'Don Quixote', I just felt the weight of trying to do it, so I just ended up doing 'The Man Who Killed Don Quizote' and taking the bits that I want and throwing the rest out."
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