Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses?
Williams plays a lawyer and a man with a toothache in this film of short sexually suggestive skits, directed by Robert Levy. Co-starring Roger Behr and Joey Camen. Williams states about this first film:
Gave me the idea that it can be free-form, that you can go in and out of things pretty easily.
Popeye
Williams portrays Popeye in Robert Altman’s musical comedy live-action realization of the American comic strip character Popeye the Sailor Man. Popeye is a spinach-eating sailor in love with Olive Oil (Shelley Duvall) and at odds with Bluto (Paul L. Smith), his perennial nemesis.
Near the end of the movie . . . the studio had pooled all of the money, so all the special effects people left. It was Ed Wood the last weeks of the movie. Shelley Duvall was in a pond, basically, with an octopus with no internal mechanism, having to drape it over her body like a feather boa. I’m in the water, and I’m kind of like sitting there .. . . . . we’re there on Malta, which is a very small island in between Italy and North Africa, and it was some of the worst weather they had had in 60 years. So it was a pretty crazy experience. But! I got to work with Robert Altman and I’ll never forget that.
The World According to Garp
Based on the novel by John Irving, Williams plays T.S. Garp – an only child conceived when his single mother has sex with a brain-damaged soldier in her nursing care, in this drama directed by George Roy Hil. Garp’s life from birth to death is punctuated by events such as: marriage and infidelity, parenting and the loss of a child, social and political activism, fame and death threats. Co-starring, Mary Beth Hurt. Helen Holm, Glenn Close and Jenny Fields.
I started off just improvising like crazy. And [director] George Roy Hill made a face like a weasel in a wind tunnel and I then I went, ‘Not good?’ And he went [breathes deep and whispers], ‘Just say the words.’
The Survivors
Williams portrays Donald Quinelle, an executive who is fired from his job in Michael Ritchie’s comedy. He goes to a diner and meets Sonny Paluso (Walter Matthau) who owns a gas station that was blown up. The two of them witness a robbery and the hit man threatens to kill them. Quinelle becomes obsessed with guns as a way to protect himself from the mob and enrolls in a survivalist training school in the mountains of Vermont. Co-starring Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, and Annie McEnroe. Ritchie:
Walter [Matthau] becomes straight man to Robin, and then Robin is straight man to him. That doesn’t happen in great comedy teams, where they form a pattern; Dean Martin is always in a certain relationship with Jerry Lewis, or Abbott is with Costello. Instead, with Walter and Danny or Walter and Robin, you have this balance constantly shifting.
On the Ledge
In this comedy directed by Peter Ferrera, Williams costars as himself in a movie that is completely improvised with no written scripts that allowed the actors to make up the skits as they went along. Co-starring Jonathan Winters, Susan Anton, Milton Berle, and Phyllis Diller.
It was fun to work on. We would drive out, use all the film and keep on going.
Good Morning, America
In this drama based on a true story, directed by Barry Levinson and co-starring Forest Whitaker, Williams plays US Army DJ Adrian Cronauer. Cronauer is deployed to serve as a morning radio show host, and gains fame with the comic relief his monologues offer to the American troops. Producer Mark Johnson:
Robin would get up in the morning and say, “We have to do yesterday’s work all over again. I’ll pay for it.” I’d say, “What are you talking about! It worked great.”
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
In this fantasy based on the novel written by Rudolph Erich Raspe and directed by Terry Gilliam, Williams plays the The Man on the Moon. The film is about a Baron who needs to end a war he started himself by flying into outerspace on a cannonball, being swallowed by a whale, ballooning to the moon, and exploring a volcano. Costars John Neville, Uma Thurman, and Sarah Polley. Gilliam:
Williams helped save this film. Budgets were cut, actors pulled out and were sick from exhaustion, Williams kept spirits high and the film rolling.
Cadillac Man
In this comedy directed by Roger Donaldson, Williams plays a car salesman that must sell 12 cars before he loses his job. Co-starring Tim Robbins, Pamela Reed, and Fran Drescher.
It’s hard being a car salesman, people have a misconception of you being a bad person, like an invisible man to mug you with options you didn’t want. It was something I really had to work at.
Awakenings
In this drama directed by Penny Marshall, Williams plays Dr. Malcolm Sayer, based on the 1973 nonfiction book by Oliver Sacks. Williams portrays a physician who cares for victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic. The patients are revived after he experiments with a new medication determined to bring these people back to a normal state. Co-starring Robert DeNiro and Julie Kavner.
I loved the chance for pushing the envelope to change people’s perceptions of this.
The Fisher King
Williams stars alongside Jeff Bridges in this drama directed by Terry Gilliam. Bridges’s character, shock jock Jack Lucas, inadvertently pushes a psychotic radio caller over the edge and suffers a breakdown himself after finding out the caller has committed a massacre. Several years later, while working as a clerk at a video store and heavily depressed, he is rescued from an attack by homeless man Parry, played by Williams. He becomes involved with Parry and finds he is connected to the tragedy that caused his own downfall. Jack must rescue him in an urban re-imagining of the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King.
Parry is a man with a previous life that was so damaged that he had to create another personality … Some people respond to traumatic or tragic events by withdrawal; some even create other personalities. Parry is a creation – somewhat Don Quixote, somewhat Groucho Marx – but he’s a creation designed to avoid a past event.
Hook
Williams plays Peter Banning all grown up in the film, Hook. In the movie, Peter Banning has forgotten his roots as Peter Pan in Neverland, but must find them and return when his children are kidnapped by Hook—played by Dustin Hoffman.
The hardest part was to get the innocence of it. Like when I see my daughter, who’s 2, who sees a Christmas tree, to get that face. To lose the fact that you’re 40 and get to a point that’s 10 or 11.
Shakes the Clown
In this comedy directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, Williams plays a mime class instructor. A drunk clown is accused of killing his boss, so he poses as a mime to gather information to clear his name. Costars Julie Brown, Bruce Baum, and Steve Bean.
It allowed me to put some lessons to work. Many people wouldn’t think I studied the art of mime.
Aladdin
Williams stars as the voice of Genie in the film Aladdin. In the film Genie helps Aladdin grant his wishes to win the love of Princess Jasmine.
The one thing I said was I will do the voice. I’m doing it basically because I want to be part of this animation tradition. I want something for my children. One deal is, I just don’t want to sell anything–as in Burger King, as in toys, as in stuff.
Toys
In this comedy directed by Barry Levinson, Williams plays a military general who inherits a toy factory. He starts making war toys and his employees have to band together to stop him from ruining the name of the toy store. Costarring Michael Gambon and John Cusack.
It was magnificently fun to do because I would just go in knowing I was going to this magical place.
Mrs. Doubtfire
Williams stars in this comedy as Daniel Hillard, a father posing as his ex-wife’s housekeeper and nanny named Mrs. Doubtfire, so that he may spend more time with his three children. The film also stars Sally Field.
It’s a love story basically about a man and his children. He can’t imagine being away from them for one day so he goes and takes a desperate measure to be with them everyday.
Being Human
In this fantasy drama directed by Bill Forsyth, Williams plays the part of Hector who starts out as a caveman that lost his wife and is reincarnated over and over again until he is a modern day divorced man trying to get to know his kids. He learns the meaning of life over four lifetimes. Costarring John Turturro and Kelly Hunter. Forsythe:
He has observational humor and brings out great performances from other actors
Jumanji
Williams stars in this fantasy drama as character Alan Parish, a boy who opened the board game Jumanji and was sucked into the game for decades before being freed by two new players. Parish must help to complete the game to return the horrors Jumanji has created.
There is a scene in the movie where you wrestle a crocodile and there is things in the movie that are computer effects and the rest an animatronic which means muppets on steroids. I was wrestling this crocodile and I pounding it on the head and I hear someone inside go “hey!”
Jack
Williams stars in this comedy drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He plays Jack Powell, a boy who suffers from a rare disorder that ages his appearance four times faster than his actual age. The story depicts his struggles in dealing with this disorder as well as the relationships he builds with this family and friends. He co-stars with Diane Lane, Brian Kerwin, Jennifer Lopez and Bill Cosby.
But I think what made me want to play Jack was that innocent time before all that, riding bikes, friends in treehouses, all those things that loom on the boundaries of child and boy.
The Secret Agent
In the drama thriller directed by Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Joseph Conrad, Williams plays an assassin who owns a porn shop London as a front. He really is an anarchist, who holds meetings in his apartment with plans to overthrow the government. Co-starring Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, and Gerard Depardieu.
I don’t carry the characters around when I’m doing the movie, because it can be quite frightening for your family to come home as those people.
Hamlet
Williams plays Osric in this drama directed by Kenneth Branagh based on the William Shakespeare play. Hamlet returns home to find out his father is dead and his mother is marrying his uncle who is his father’s murderer. Co-starring Billie Crystal, Julie Christie, and Derek Jacobi. Branagh on Williams:
(He’s) an actor who would be funny, but could also be real in the way I felt was necessary.