The actor Robin Williams said makes Chuck Norris look like a “wuss”
Violence is not the first word one associates with Robin Williams. A true human manifestation of the gift of the gab, Williams had a uniquely rare ability to perform stand-up comedy that shot him to overnight success after his first appearance in Mork & Mindy.
But what endeared Williams to everyone was not just his ability to perform something that had been written and rehearsed but also to improvise when put in a spot. Throughout his career, he delivered a series of blockbuster comic hits on the screen for audiences across the board. From giving voice to sensational Disney characters like the genie in Aladdin to cross-dressing his way into the now-sensational classic Mrs Doubtfire, Williams did everything there was to do under the umbrella of comedy as a genre.
Few directors dared tap into an otherwise unseen, sombre side of his personality in films like Dead Poets Society and Good Morning Vietnam—the latter finally won him an Academy Award.
Throughout his career, Williams retained a strong element of surprise through every performance he has ever thrown our way. So it was shocking, only theoretically, when it was announced that he was going to star in Steven Spielberg’s Hook as none other than Peter Pan himself. Starring alongside the great Dustin Hoffman, Williams’ Pan was an ageing man forced to return to Neverland to save his children, whom Captain Hook had kidnapped. In an interview with Playboy, Williams explained with the most quintessential Williams-esque, deadpan sense of humour, “Hook kidnaps his children to bring him back because he’s had no one to fight with for so many years, and he’s become bored.”
On being asked to name potential alternatives to play his role, Williams took it upon himself to impersonate every actor suggested for the role. On being asked his thoughts on Steven Seagal being a good fit for the part, Williams instantaneously responds, “[Tough-guy whisper] ‘Yeah, right, I’m, uh…are you Hook?’ [Grabs an imaginary arm, snaps it, becomes Hook screaming in pain. Then back to Seagal’s voice] ‘Look at you now, you’ve got two hooks, no waiting.’”
Steven Seagal, an American martial artist and actor, debuted with his first film in 1988 titled Above the Law. It was the first American film to feature the martial art of aikido. Next, Seagal essayed the role of a Navy Seal in the two-part franchise Under the Siege and starred in his own directorial debut, The Patriot, in 1994. The film, which went direct-to-video, was the beginning of a slew of such projects Seagal helmed, besides working on his own reality show titled Steven Seagal: Lawman.
Trained in martial arts in Tokyo, Japan, Seagal is a seventh-dan black belt in Aikido and was the first American person to teach the same in Japan. Describing aikido as the “gentlest form of martial arts”, Williams commented on the violence in Seagal’s films by adding, “Yet there’s more carnage in his movies than I’ve ever seen before. The stuff Seagal does makes the Chuck Norris stuff seem so wuss. When Seagal puts people in those locks, and he does that snap move-that one where this guy’s arm just popped out-it was the most physical, brutal thing I’ve ever seen in movies.”
Chuck Norris is also a US-based martial artist and actor. After serving in the US Air Force, he trained in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo, and currently holds a black belt in all three forms of martial training. He was a personal martial arts trainer to many A-list Hollywood celebrities and starred in roles opposite Bruce Lee in films like The Way of the Dragon. Although Williams and Seagal had never worked on a fiction project together, they appeared in the documentary film Get Bruce, which was about celebrity writer Bruce Vilanch.
