The 1991 role Robin Williams saw as the “antithesis” of who he was: “This is not about that”
In his all-too-brief time on this earth, Robin Williams worked with just about every great director there was.
One of his earliest film roles was in Robert Altman’s interpretation of Popeye, the Monty Python crew loved him, as Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones cast him multiple times, and George Miller, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Weir, and more all bore witness to his greatness. Then there was Steven Spielberg.
The most successful filmmaker of all time had Williams in two of his movies. One was AI Artificial Intelligence, in which he appears as a holographic spoof of Albert Einstein called ‘Dr Know’. The other and best-known collaboration between the pair was 1991’s Hook, a sequel to Peter Pan that sees an older version of the title character (Williams) return to Neverland in order to rescue his children from the clutches of Captain Hook, played brilliantly by Dustin Hoffman.
The film presents the adult Peter as a drab lawyer who has no time for his family. He is a shadow (pun fully intended) of his former, swashbuckling self, which informs the central arc of the story. This characterisation is in stark contrast to the roles Williams had made famous up to this point, which were usually big, bombastic, and almost cartoonish. As Spielberg explained to the Boca Raton News, he was very aware of this when he began working with the comedic icon.
“That character is the antithesis of who Robin is,” the director explained (via Robin Williams Fansite), “It was a real challenge for him”. Williams couldn’t agree more, adding, “Normally, I want to be as inventive as possible, to try everything under the sun. This is not about that”.
Spielberg wasn’t initially signed on to direct Hook. That duty fell to former Halloween actor Nick Castle, who co-wrote the movie’s script. Williams was cast when Castle was still in charge, giving rise to the rumour that he wasn’t Spielberg’s first choice. Some claim that the director wanted Tom Hanks, but the actor himself has debunked that myth. At one point, even Michael Jackson was supposedly interested, which, for various reasons, I am thrilled did not happen.
As we now know, Williams was more than capable of playing quiet, reserved characters when he wanted to. Also, as important as it was for Peter to be boring to begin with, he does have to regain his mojo at some point. This is where Williams really comes into his own as a cawing, hollering manchild flying around, battling pirates, and trading immature barbs with a bewigged Hoffman.
While Spielberg might not have been pleased with the final outcome of Hook, it’s a cherished part of his filmography with a lot of fans, myself thoroughly included.
Williams’ performance is a big reason for its cult following, as he perfectly balances the dour Peter Banning with the dynamic Peter Pan. This casting decision also led to a friendship between the two men, which really came in handy a few years later, when Spielberg was making another, much more serious movie.
