Posted on 11/22/2023 9:07:13 AM PST by Red Badger
Robin Williams did so much improv while filming the 1993 comedy “Mrs. Doubtfire” that the production team ended up with 2 million feet of film.
Director Chris Columbus spoke with Business Insider about the movie’s 30th anniversary. He fondly recalled working with the late Williams, saying he brought the titular main character to life with his unparalleled talent.
“Early on in the process, he went to me: ‘Hey boss, the way I like to work, if you’re up for it, is I’ll give you three or four scripted takes, and then let’s play,”‘ Columbus told the outlet.
“By saying that, what he meant was he wanted to improvise. And that’s exactly how we shot every scene. We would have exactly what was scripted, and then Robin would go off and it was something to behold.”
The director said he felt sorry for the script director, Margaret de Jesus, who had to record all the changes by hand.
“Remember, this is the early 1990s, she wasn’t typing what he was saying. She was handwriting it and Robin would change every take,” Columbus continued.
“So Robin would go to a place where he couldn’t remember much of what he said. We would go to the script supervisor and ask her and sometimes she didn’t even get it all. Often, he would literally give us a completely different take than what we did doing the written takes.”
He added, “If it were today, we would never end. But back then, we were shooting film so once we were out of film in the camera, we would say to Robin: ‘We’re out of film.’ That happened on several occasions.”
“It got to the point that I had to shoot the entire movie with four cameras to keep up with him. None of us knew what he was going to say when he got going and so I wanted a camera on the other actors to get their reactions,” Columbus said.
The film also starred Sally Field as Williams’ ex-wife and Pierce Brosnan as her new love interest. The director said it was “quite difficult for them not to break character” when Williams was in full improv mode.
The movie was based on the 1987 Anne Fine novel “Madame Doubtfire.” The story follows a divorced man (Williams) who dresses up as a British nanny to stay close to his three kids. It came out at the height of Williams’ popularity in the mid-90s and became a box office hit, earning more than $440 million worldwide. It remains popular to this day.
Columbus hinted that a documentary about the film could be a future possibility.
“There are roughly 972 boxes of footage from Doubtfire – footage we used in the movie, outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage – in a warehouse somewhere and we would like to hire an editor to go in and look at all of that footage,” he told BI.
“We want to show Robin’s process. There is something special and magical about how he went about his work and I think it would be fun to delve into it.”
Williams died by suicide in 2014 after years of mental health struggles. He was 63 years old.
He’s just as liberal as they are.
Ever see Stalag 17?
Sounds like abuse of the mentally ill ...
You can get your SRV fix from his tribute band, Texas Flood. I head over to Tolbert’s in Grapevine when they’re in town.
Yes it was. Fortunately it was written before Asimov became insufferably long-winded and a total bore. His later Robot and Foundation books were murderously boring. As bad as the Dune novels like “Lord God Help Us Another Sequel To Dune.” I couldn’t finish it. Or “Robots and Empire”. (Shudder). What slogs. I go unconscious just thinking about them.
What is it with authors as they age? Heinlein was another one who became unreadable. He like went nuts after Stranger with his crazy group marriage nonsense. Lazarus Long and his never ending sermonizing.
Williams creeps me out.
I’ve read all the Asimov Foundation books and thoroughly enjoyed every one, many more than once. Same with all the Dune sequels and prequels. And all of Heinlein’s Lazarus Long series and his weird stuff as well................
Loved Mork & Mindy as a kid. He was never funny after that.
“Fortunately it was written before Asimov became insufferably long-winded and a total bore.”
______________________________________________
Thought it was just me thinking Asimov really went over the edge as he aged in his writings.
It’s as if he either gave into new delusions or felt comfortable enough to let loose with his inner core of beliefs.
It was sad reading as it went further into the series.
“John Candy”
Dan Aykroyd was interviewed by Kilmeade over the weekend on Fox for his new History Channel show. He was so funny with Candy in “The Great Outdoors”. Aykroyd was also so funny in “Neighbors” when he switched and played the crazy guy to John Belushi’s straight man.
My late mother thought Some Like It Hot was so funny and yet I’ve never seen it. Even the clips I’ve seen are so good. Two men trying to keep it together as women around Marilyn Monroe at her peak of beauty.
My late mother didn’t like too much of modern fare preferring the old movies. But she would laugh so hard at Robin Williams in “Mrs. Doubtfire”. I remember her and my Dad also laughing at him in “The Birdcage”. I wish I could have shown her “Nine Months” in which Williams is hilarious as a nervous Russian obstetrician who speaks poor English.
So true. Saw a documentary about Darrell Hammond. His mother abused him mercilessly. Great talent covering so much pain.
So true
It was. He improvised the whole scene depicting Adrian's first radio appearance. Forrest Whitaker and company were cracking up, as none of it was scripted. So I've read.
Bookmark
No way that movie would have been made in Hollywood today.
I was listening to an interview with Alex Lifeson, guitarist with RUSH. He said for his solos during a song he had several general ideas of how it would go based on the lyrics and the other music of the song. He wouldn’t practice anything beforehand.
He would go into the studio and play 4, maybe 5 different solos freehand (improv?). The producer would pick and chose from each attempt and maybe reorder the sequences, etc. Alex would review it and make some tweeks, but generally trusted the producer.
Then of course play the “new” solo for the album and concerts.
Interviewer: Wasn’t that hard to play it all out of order and with different versions mixed together?
Alex: Well, I figured I had played the notes once - I could do it again.
(The solos were recreated by listening and playing - not reading sheet music. Alex could read music to a certain extent if he had to. Neither the drummer or bassist could read music!)
The man was an abject, rabid leftist. I cannot stand to watch anything with him in it.
The scene where he dances with the vacuum cleaner is my favorite.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.