The movie role Robin Williams always regretted: “I sounded like a killer whale farting”
Over the years, a few actors have elevated themselves above the Hollywood humdrum to access a level of fame and adoration that simply cannot be compared. The likes of Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves and Robin Williams each climbed to fame in the late 20th century, partly thanks to a carefully curated persona that radiated kindness and humour.
It might seem like a natural way to climb the fame ladder. Charm is, of course, a very useful way for one to excel in almost any walk of life. But it is perhaps most telling that in Hollywood charm and the twinkle in the eye will get you further than perhaps your talent might alone. Luckily for Williams he was both charismatic, intently likable and wondrously talented.
Tragically passing away in 2014, Williams was a favourite of the silver screen for a number of years, shining in such movies as Disney’s Aladdin, the Oscar-winner Mrs. Doubtfire and the franchise-spinner Jumanji in the 1990s. Earning three Academy Award nominations in the same decade, Williams won his first and only Oscar in 1998 for the Gus Van Sant indie flick Good Will Hunting.
Back in 1980, however, when Williams was still trying to make his way in the industry, he made his debut starring role in the curious Robert Altman film Popeye. An adaptation of the cartoon of the same name, Popeye starred Williams as the title character, a spinach-chewing sailor and strongman who gets up to all sorts of hijinx in the seaside town of Sweethaven.
Speaking about the role in a former interview, Williams complained about how his character sounded, stating: “I had to dub that movie over twice…because people couldn’t understand what I was saying. I sounded like a killer whale farting in a wind tunnel”.
Starring beside Shelley Duvall and Donald Moffat, Williams’ role in the movie was highly criticised, and Popeye remains one of Altman’s worst-rated films, but this was in spite of its excellent set design, which remarkably remains standing to this very day in Malta. Jokingly, Williams nicknamed the set ‘Stalag Altman’ at the time, thanks to the elaborate and complex set taking a considerable time to construct.
Williams further elaborated on his time in the film in an interview in the book Robin by Dave Itzkoff, stating: “I also had that dream of getting up to thank the Academy. I thought, this is it, this is my ‘Superman,’ and it’s gonna go through the f*****’ roof! After the first day on Popeye, I thought, ‘Well, maybe this isn’t it,’ and I finally wound up going, ‘Oh, God, when is it going to be over?’”.
It is truly something when a movie can be considered both truly terrible and a cult favourite. A strange picture, the film has since gained cult status owing to a generational of parents who simply assumed that anything with Popeye in it was likely to be family-friendly and not the quasi-surreal live-action take on a bonafide thug. However, in the perfect mirror of that duality is that Williams certainly hated the feature more than most in his filmography, yet it is hard to imagine any other actor stepping into his shoes to become the cartoon fisticuffs expert.
Take a look at the trailer for the movie below, experience one of Williams’s worst films, and consume a glimpse into the most bizarre releases of Altman’s career.
