The “frightening” 1996 role that followed Robin Williams home: “I couldn’t do that to my family”
It always sounds a bit wanky when an actor claims that a role was so draining and demanding that they couldn’t shake it off when they finished the movie and went home, and it also sounds like something that wouldn’t necessarily be applicable to someone like Robin Williams.
While you could imagine him being haunted by the ghost of One Hour Photo‘s Sy Parrish or Insomnia‘s Walter Finch, it’s hard to envision the legendary funnyman bolting upright in the middle of the night, caked in a cold sweat and convinced that he’s still Euphegenia Doubtfire or Mork from Ork.
Like most stars, Williams left his characters at the door; when he wrapped up the final day of shooting and drew a line under a production, that was that. He played plenty of complex, challenging, and daunting parts throughout his career, but there was only one that he struggled to get rid of.
It wasn’t one of his best-known pictures, though. In fact, it amounted to little more than an extended cameo in the grand scheme of things, and the film was so determined to keep his involvement under wraps that the iconic star wasn’t even listed in the credits. Despite his minimal participation, it made a lasting impression for the wrong reasons.
“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,” the Academy Award winner explained, before confessing there was an occasion when he did exactly that: “I did that one time with a movie, The Secret Agent.”
In writer and director Christopher Hampton’s period-set dramatic thriller, Williams was a surprise addition to the ensemble as a character known only as ‘The Professor’, a psychotic, sociopathic, and dangerously intelligent antagonist who roams Victorian London with an incendiary device strapped to his chest.
Another adverse side effect was that the picture was also a personal favourite of the Unabomber. “In The Secret Agent, it’s basically a character that was admired by Theodore Kaczynski, which is some fan mail you don’t really want to open,” he joked. “This is a man who is a chemist, and who specialises in making bombs, and despises humanity.”
It was a million miles away from being the most prominent, showiest, or even publicised role he ever played, but when ‘The Professor’ started making his presence felt in the Williams household, something needed to be done. “I was kind of thinking about the character, and my wife said, ‘Stop!'” the stand-up superstar recalled. “Because you get that very kind of dead-eyed look.”
Nobody at home wanted to have a killer hovering around when they were going about their daily business, so he did everything he could to get rid of them. “It’s frightening,” Williams acknowledged. “And I didn’t want to do that to my family.” He did, at least for a little while, before reclaiming his sense of self.
