The one genre Robin Williams wanted nothing to do with: “There’s a conscious choice”
Some actors will throw themselves into anything, while others are a bit pickier about the gigs they take on. I mean, can you picture Vin Diesel in a rom-com? Or Daniel Day-Lewis rocking up in a Marvel movie? Didn’t think so.
Some genres just aren’t for everyone, and that’s perfectly fine. Loads of actors find their groove and stick with it, rarely wandering too far from what they know in case they land somewhere unfamiliar – or downright terrifying. For Robin Williams, there was one genre in particular he was never too fussed about, though he did come dangerously close.
Beginning his career as a stand-up comedian, as many actors used to do back in the day, Williams made his film debut in 1977’s Can I Do It… ‘Til I Need Glasses? before receiving his big break with Mork and Mindy. Taking on comedic roles, Williams asserted himself as one of the funniest men in Hollywood, and by the time he’d starred in the likes of Popeye, Good Morning, Vietnam, and eventually Mrs Doubtfire (among many other hits), he was officially an American natural treasure.
Humour seemed to be what came most easily to Williams, although he sometimes strayed from his comedic path in search of more emotionally-complex roles, as demonstrated by his important parts in the likes of Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting. In the former, his performance as an English teacher who significantly inspires his students, delivering a powerful monologue about the importance of literature and art, is one of his most unforgettable, making eventual cinematic crimes, like 1996’s Jack, much easier to let slide. Only just.
Talking to US Weekly, the actor once explained, “I’ve always gotten kind of a nice mixed bag of things – children’s movies, which I enjoy doing; serious dramas; outrageous comedies. It’s nice, because it doesn’t seem to be any one particular category that they send the majority of stuff from. [But] once I did Dead Poets Society, it opened up a certain category. I think there’s a very conscious choice when something affects me like that – when you have characters who are trying to connect with others. There’s also a conscious choice [about what] I haven’t been able to do.”
If there was one thing he was not keen on doing, it was violence. It’s not something you can see Williams doing, is it? He was never going to be the next action hero or James Bond, and he was OK with that. “The only movie I ever did with an automatic weapon was The Survivors, and it was a comedy. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to blow someone’s head off,” he admitted.
That kind of grisly, weapon-wielding film just didn’t come naturally to Williams, who much preferred to abstain from roles that made him uncomfortable. “The only adventure I’ve ever done is really Jumanji which was, you know, virtual animals ‑ running from a rhino. It was a teamster with a stick at the time,” he continued. If he was going to do something less comedic or drama-based, it had to at least be pretty inoffensive in terms of its violence, and Jumanji hit the mark right, becoming a hit with a younger audience as well as adults.
At least Williams knew what he was into, and he shaped his career with that in mind. That’s not to say he didn’t occasionally throw a curveball, like when he took on the eerie Mark Romanek thriller One Hour Photo back in 2002. Sometimes, he clearly fancied a bit of a change – just not the kind that came with buckets of blood and gore.
