Robin Williams’ ability to make people laugh, including his collaborators on set, is well documented, given his extreme ability for improvisation. Mrs. Doubtfire director Chris Columbus previously noted that they could have cut versions of the 1993 classic for every level of the film rating system, from “G” to “R,” based exclusively on the various takes Williams delivered. Despite his penchant for humor, Williams frequently stretched his legs into dramatic categories, sometimes blending his sensibilities as well.
One of his most frequent collaborators was filmmaker Barry Levinson, who worked with him on three movies. Speaking with ComicBook in support of the 30th anniversary of his crime drama Sleepers, Levinson took some time to reflect on working with Williams. When asked about his time working with the Academy Award-winning comedian, Levinson offered details of their work together on Good Morning, Vietnam, revealing that a major scene in the film was giving him trouble, only for Williams’ improv ability to give him the fix. As Levinson revealed, the scene where Williams’ Adrian Cronauer speaks to an English tutoring class was totally changed how they even shot the movie
“We doing the scene, and I just stop it. I said, all right, take a break, because I
thought this is not working out, it doesn’t feel real to me,” Levinson said. ” So we take a break. We’re outside of this building. It’s hot and sunny. I’m wondering, what am I going to do? I don’t get a sense of the Vietnamese characters, it’s just… it’s a mess. And so while I’m wandering around, I can hear laughter. And Robin is up on the porch with the Vietnamese actors. And they’re laughing and he’s saying something and they’re laughing and then they’re talking to him and he’s laughing.
He continued, “They get everybody back in place. And I said to Robin, ‘Here’s what I’m going to do. Forget the dialogue. You know what it’s about, you know what the scene is. So why don’t we just go down that road? You know what we need to accomplish. This is what we’re going to get to. And so why don’t we just sort of lead them and just sort of be talking to them and then let them respond, just like what’s going on in the porch. The way you’re having fun with them, and we’ll get the story points that are necessary in the scene.”
As Levinson noted, Williams understood what he was telling and took it from there, even without needing to slate the shot or even calling ‘Action’ for the crew.
“He just starts talking to them and getting to the story points. And then that scene really worked….It was very, very credible as opposed to they say this line and they say this line or
whatever. And it hit all the points that we had to. But it was Robin’s way of functioning
with people and how he interacts with people that was so important. I just let that go and then that became the format for the film. So any time we had those scenes, I didn’t want them to just have to say it loud. He would just start talking and we would get what we need….And that’s part of Robin’s amazing ability, how he can interact with people.”
