Tom Waits in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Tom Waits in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Veteran bluesman Tom Waits plays the slick Mr Nick in Terry Gilliam’s 2009 fantasy adventure The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. His charismatic incarnation, complete with bowler hat and quellazaire, places a bet with Dr Parnasuss, the head of a traveling troupe, that the first to capture five souls will take as his prize the doctor’s 16-year-old daughter. Waits purrs his lines and makes his Satan cool enough to turn the whole of hell into Antarctica. He adopted a similar persona in the music video for his song “God’s Away On Business,” where he dons the black umbrella used in the film.