The role Robin Williams compared to a “bad drug flashback”
As if there weren’t enough strings to his bow already as an A-list superstar, beloved comedian, master of improvisation, and box office draw, Robin Williams also developed a reputation as a powerhouse actor whenever he turned his attention to drama.
Nominated three times for ‘Best Actor’ at the Academy Awards, Williams would win the trophy for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the very first attempt when Good Will Hunting saw him virtually sweep the board across all of the major ceremonies, but one of his very best performances was completely shut out of the awards season conversation.
As much as audiences had grown accustomed to seeing Williams play against type whenever he signed on for a dramatic project, Mark Romanek’s One Hour Photo was arguably his biggest departure yet from the whirlwind persona that had shot him to celebrity status decades previously. The intense psychological thriller focuses on Williams’ Sy Parrish, a perfectionist who runs a developing lab and harbours a dark secret. Kind and friendly to his customers, that public veneer hides an ongoing obsession with the Yorkin family, which is elevated to the next level when he sees the husband being unfaithful to his wife.
Unsettling and creepy, Williams is phenomenal in the film, but recognition proved impossible to come by. In a Reddit AMA, the star described One Hour Photo as “so surreal”, even saying how “it was a bit like a bad drug flashback”. Not in a bad way despite such sinister undertones, though, with the leading man adding that “the joy about doing that movie was creating a character that lived vicariously through other people’s lives”.
Vicarious might be a stretch, considering Parrish’s obsession continues to consume every fibre of his existence, but Williams was nonetheless determined to subvert the cinemagoing public’s perception of him. Speaking to Beat Box Betty, he admitted that “it’s just time to add some dark colours to the palette”.
“I’ve always wanted to, but they just wouldn’t let me,” he continued, “Hollywood goes for what sells and what sells is ‘warm and happy, good and fun’. But when I got this, I was like, ‘God, this is great. Thank you!'” It wasn’t the type of part that anyone expected to see him play, but as he had a habit of doing, Williams knocked it right out of the park.
Ironically, the same year One Hour Photo was released, Williams broke bad again as author-turned-murderer Walter Finch in Christopher Nolan’s psychological spiritual bedfellow Insomnia, giving him the rare distinction of playing a pair of nefarious and undeniably malevolent characters within a matter of months. Villainy was hardly his stock in trade, but it certainly was in 2002 when the films hit cinemas in quick succession between May and August of that year.
