The “very bleak” Robin Williams role that found a fan in the Unabomber: “It doesn’t get any more dismal”
As one of the most popular actors and comedians of his era, Robin Williams had fans of all shapes and sizes all over the world, but he didn’t count on the Unabomber being one of them.
If there were any positives to be drawn from the situation, at least Ted Kaczynski wasn’t a diehard supporter of Mrs Doubtfire, Flubber, Aladdin, or any other of Williams’ more light-hearted roles that were geared towards audiences of all ages, not people who built bombs and murdered three people.
In fact, it was one of the lesser-known entries in Williams’ filmography that captured the Unabomber’s eye, although he was fond of the character before the Academy Award winner played it onscreen. He didn’t even know at the time, either, which must have been an interesting conversation to have.
In 1996, the exuberant funnyman went further against type than he’d ever been in his career, going uncredited in writer and director Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, with the Professor marking the first time the comic had ever been cast as an out-and-out villain.
Despite boasting Williams, Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Izzard, and Christian Bale among the ensemble, the 19th-century spy story flew almost completely under the radar, and while it didn’t set the world on fire from a critical perspective, Williams nonetheless won praise for a performance that hinted he could break bad with the best of them.
“You know, that’s the one thing that’s kind of evaded me,” he acknowledged. “People keep asking me, ‘When are you going to play a really dark character?’ I tried it once in a small movie called The Secret Agent, which was a very bleak piece. It doesn’t get more dismal.”
To make things even more dismal, Williams found out that not only was Kaczynski a lifelong fan of the novel, but he particularly identified with the Professor, the role Williams played in the film, believing that they shared several personality traits, never mind their affinity for creating homemade explosives.
“I later found out that the character I play in that film was actually admired by Theodore Kaczynski,” Williams shared. It wasn’t a revelation he welcomed, but he still couldn’t help himself from cracking a joke. “He’s not someone you want as a fan, really. It’s like, ‘You got a letter here from Ted.’ ‘I love your work: please open this package in a small room.'”
He might have been able to make light of the situation in hindsight, but it must have been jarring for Williams to shoot The Secret Agent and then be informed that his part in the picture was one of the Unabomber’s biggest inspirations.
