8/22/2019 Robin Williams interview

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8/22/2019 Robin Williams interview

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FRANK LOVECETO NEWSDAVHe is the iiber-comic, the onecomedians fear and re-On the raw frontier ofhe's the gunslinger ofa dead shot who, whenoomes to audiences, alwaysnow, like a slraggyRobin Williarns has fol-Timand Steve Martin as a

movie-straight-man dad.It's not a bad thing. And he'splayed a rhovie dad be-in drag, as the tihrlar Mrs.Or magically, as andomesticated Peterin "Hook" Yet now, playmgput-upon pop in the family-va-comedy "RV," opening to-it seems a rare instancetornado being tamed.Not that his co-stars noticeddifferent on the set.Jeff Daniels, for one, says hegoing in that Williams isgonna go off' on hisimprovisational riffs.just a matter of goinghim." Which did, Danielsrequire survival tech-on a take,and hearty charac-slap [Williams] realshoulder, and thenget to that point in take twoI wouldn't do it - so I'dRobin off-balance a bit. Itmy only prayer," Daniels"But I had a good timehim. He's a good listener."Likewise off the set, accordingTony Award-winning singerChenoweth, who playsspunky wife. 'RobinI could probably talk forshe saysAnd not just talk.try to sing in front of meCOLUMEIA PICTURES PHOTOSAlong for the ride and enjoying it are William's co-stars, JeffDaniels, left, and Cheryl Hines, who plays Williams'wife.

Williams travels a different route in thecomedy'RV' by playing a cinematic dadand they get nervous," says theformidable Broadway belter. "Ex-cept for Robin. He'll sing a frillaria. In another language we'veneverheard of.,l'Making it upThat fearlessness served Will-iams well in his transition fromstreet performer to screen per-former n 1977. He found hisniche riskily going off-script thefollowing year to improvisemany of his own lines on a net-work TV series, "Mork &' Mindy." A sudden star, he couldhave burnt out qs a comedy su-pernova (he has continued toperform standup with great suc-cess, over his 30-year career).Instead he stretched to becomean Academy Award-winningdramatic actor ("Good WillHunting") and additional three-time nominee (for the dramas"The Fisher King" and "DeadPoets Society" and the serio-comedy "Good Morning, Viet-nam"). But he has also kept hishand in the over-the-top hilari-ty ("Mrs. Doubtfire," "Death toSmoochy") that made him fa-mous in the first place.Which brings us to 2006 and'RV." Williams plays BobMunro, a Willy Loman-esque ex-ecutive in a soda corporation.Forced to choose between hisjob or a long-promised and post-poned Hawaiian vacation withhis family - wife famie (CherylHines) and spoiled kids Carl(Josh Hutcherson), 12, and Cass-ie (singer Joanna "IoIo"Levesque), 16 - he attempts athird alternative. He rents an RVfor a family road trip on which

he will secretly take along workthat will'ultimately deliver himto the Colorado company hisown company ls acqurnng -and where Bob is erpected to ap-pear by a certain date. '"I never imagined being any-place different," he says contem-platively in his Manhattan hotelroom, inlerviewed privately dur-ing a press junket for "RV.""There's no,'This is where Ivont to be,"'he says, affecting asinister tone in the first of manyvoices he'll trot out for the con- 'versation. "It's where I am. It'snot like I erfvisioned being moreor less." He pauses, as if, improb-ably, thinking about it for thefirst time. "It's been good, It'sbeen a good one."A comedy of familyWhile there are physical,gross-out gags, the core of themovie is its family dynamics. Itopens with Cassie's childhood,

when Dad's her hero and she's asweet little girl he's tucking intobed. Flash-forward to now, andshe's an obnoxious, iPoddingteenager you just want to slap.Williams' own daughter, Zelda,is 16. "It's kind of interesting tosee this phase, because she's a bitlike fofo's character, very intense,. very much like, You're so embar-rassing,"'he says, launcfuing intoher voice. " You really botherme, Robin'" She and herbrotherCoSy, 14, call him by his firstname, he says, '\vhen they'regoing to be kinda businesslike..They call you 'Robin and thenyou realize, "We're having a meet-ing, tren't we?' 'Cody and I, aspartners in this family, have devel-oped what we like to call profit-sharing ideas . . ."' Williamsalso has an NYU-graduate son,Zack, with first wifeValerie Ve-Iardi, in addition to his two chil-dren with Marsha Garces Will-iams, whom he married in 1989.He became famous almostovernight for improvising wildlyand amazingly on his hit '70s sit-com "Mork & Mindy." After awhile, the show's writers would

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siftFly leave spxCin the s*riptwith words to the effccr of"Robin does funny stullhere."That traditian has cr:nti*$*dinto"RV.'"We would do two, three,four takes as scripted," says di-rector Barryr Sonnenfeld, "andthen I would say,'You got any-thing Robin?' And he wauldsay. 'Na, boss, I'm fine,' sr,'Yeah let metry sorue stuff."'Altenrative irnprovsOne scerre, says So$nenfld,'literally was scripted as an iin-prov . . . the Robh Rap," inwhich Bob resflres his son fromsome wrxrld-be white gangstasat an RV park- "The script says,'Robin arrives and says funnystuff to the white boys.'.., Wehave a totally other version ofthat scene where Robin plays asort ofkung-fu Zen rnasrir.. . .We screened it that way orr l,ongIsland, the first recruited*audi'ence screening we had, and itwas phenomenal, it was, like, hi-larious, and I said, 'Well, OK,next screening we'll do the rapversion.'And the rapper testedeven bigger than the Zen rraster,and also I preferred it.'"'"Sonretimes yau just gr: forthe elernent of surprise," WilFiarns says of doing improvs withmote $Hrrctured *ctors, "afld ifitmakes them angry, then youdna't do it again, Some peopleare Yery $uch about, 1ffe$,rrhen do I corne in?' 8nt r;vhenypu have people like limprovvt} Cheryt Hines, she'll Sr: any.where rBith iq she's used ta that-"Witb *RV,' Scnnenfeld saya"Robin and I instantly k*ew thatI would give him enough rupe toad lib and lre would he give methe ability to control tl,e movieand do takes the way I wanted

Umbashd abcmt playing drar-acter bits anci cameos, Williamsis currently in and out of NewYork filming a role in the ersem-ble fabts "August Rush" arrd an-other in the Ben Stilleroornedy'Trlight at the Museum."Slated far summer release isthe radio-host thriller "TheNight Listener," based on theArmisted Maupin novel, whichplayed at the Sundance Film Fes-. And hestars i:rBarry l.eviaccn'spolitical s*tire 'iMm ol theYear," which is scheduled for

2006 release.As for the repor"ted scquel"Mrs- Doubtfire 2":'}{o, not hap:penine The script they had iu.stdidn't work"After all that, he'll need a va-cation himslf - thollgh not inan RV."I've never driven an RV ex-cept for this movie, but I have aLand Rover," which he uses forfamily road trips. And as withBob and his brosd,'A.ll of a sud-den you do have these rnomentswhere you're back iust as a fami-ly, having a great time and somellow again that you realize,'Oh. This is why we're together.'Itt*kes a while to ds that.*

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