Jonathan Pryce convinced Don Quixote director he couldn’t ride well

Jonathan Pryce left director Terry Gilliam a nervous wreck as they shot a pivotal scene in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by convincing him he couldn’t ride a horse well.
The filmmaker tried to keep his leading man off a horse for action scenes in the fantasy, but there was one charge, for which he couldn’t use a stand-in.
“I hadn’t ridden a horse for at least 10 years,” Pryce tells WENN, “and I told Terry I didn’t think I could do very much riding, especially that which is demanded of Quixote.”
Gilliam adds, “We were all being very careful because Jonathan was very worried. In fact, we were all worried, because we had to keep him injury-free for the whole shoot.
“On the day Quixote was to charge at the windmill, we shot it with Jonathan’s stunt double, but turning past the camera, I could see he was a stunt double. I said, ‘Jonathan, do you think you could just ride a little bit, through the turn?’
“We’d reached the end of the day and Jonathan said, ‘All right, I’ll give it a go. Just that bit?’ So, we started him down the hill. Jonathan goes full gallop, charging up the hill, with lance in hand, took the corner brilliantly, lowered the lance, shouted and headed towards the windmill. The whole crew stood up and applauded.
“Jonathan knows how to do this kind of stuff; he’s a theatre actor. He waited until the last moment and just blew everybody away.”
Pryce chuckles, “It’s always a good move to tell a director you can’t really do very much. Then he’s pleasantly surprised and grateful when you actually do it. He did curse me for showing off!”