Robin Williams: His crazy improvisations on Madame Doubtfire

Robin Williams: His crazy improvisations on Madame Doubtfire



The eternal Robin Williams

Robin Williams is a Hollywood legend and was an actor apart. His filmography testifies to this, as rich as it is varied and made up of multiple films unforgettable shows. Among these is what made him one of the best-known actors of 90s cinema Mrs. DoubtA huge popular success. A funny and touching role, that of a father going through a divorce who disguises himself as a housekeeper and is hired by his ex-wife, in order to stay in touch with his children.

The actor never stopped

This year the film celebrates 30 years of its release in American theaters. On this occasion, director Chris Columbus talked about his memories of filming with Robin Williams an interview with Business Insider. He said that the actor had a very particular method, and that he was so generous in his improvisations that entire scenes were filmed for Mrs. Doubt he almost resisted 600 km of film !

Early in our collaboration, he said to me, “Hey boss, here’s how I like to work, if that’s okay with you: I’ll give you three or four takes as written, and then we’ll have fun.” (…) By this she meant that she wanted to improvise. And we did exactly that. We would do exactly as written, then Robin would step in and it was something to see!

Mrs. Doubt
Mrs. Doubtfire ©20th Century Fox

There is therefore a real treasure, the previously unseen and previously unseen images from the film, no less 900 boxes full of rushes.

It got to the point where I had to shoot the entire film with four cameras to keep up the pace. None of us knew what he was going to say at the launch, so I put a camera on the other actors to film their reactions. The studio loved what it found. Did they watch everything? I don’t think so, there are almost 600 km of film for this film.

An upcoming documentary?

With this incredible volume of images from filming and sequences never seen before Mrs. DoubtChris Colombus holds out hope that a documentary about Robin Williams can see the light of day. Objective: to show how the actor worked and delve into a method that the director describes as “Magic” AND “specialA great idea that we hope to see realised.

Source: Cine Serie

You may also like