Robin Williams has died. He was found dead in his home. He was 63. Williams career spanned decades, from TV to a series of blockbuster films, from acclaimed dramas to his timeless comic talents. He appeared in one Woody Allen film, playing the iconic out-of-focus man in Deconstructing Harry.
Where do we start with his long career? That late 80s/early 90s run of ‘Good Morning Vietnam‘, ‘Dead Poets Society‘, ‘Hook‘, ‘The Fisher King‘ and ‘Mrs Doubtfire‘ that brought him to stardom. His TV work from ‘Mork And Mindy‘ to the underrated ‘The Crazy Ones‘. His later years as an indie darling in challenging fare such as ‘World’s Greatest Dad‘ and ‘One Hour Photo‘. Of course, there is ‘Good Will Hunting‘ where he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Lots of speculation around the circumstances of his death. As we are an Allen fan site, we just wanted to share some stuff from around the time of ‘Deconstructing Harry‘. for a much more detailed obit, try the New York Times. In the book Woody Allen Interviews, Allen spoke about William’s role.
Q: How did you get the idea of ‘defocalising’ the image? As a result, you never really see Robin Williams in the film. What was his reaction? Especially when you know that he’s oone of better paid Hollywood actors and you never see him on the screen.
A: He reacted very well! When he read the script, he found the idea very funny. It came to me a long time ago, when I had had a feeling of being “defocalised’ myself, baffled in relation to society. I felt “blurry.” Around me, society was cleary defined and I had the impression that I’d lost my points of reference, that I couldn’t focus. I said to myself, that could make a great story; I wrote it and I didn’t like the result. So I put it aside. Years later, when I was working on Deconstructing Harry, when I was looking for stories that could have been written by the the character and would reveal his personality, I thought of that one, which gave me an opportunity to use it in my film.
Above is the only photo we’ve seen from the shoot, with both Allen and Williams on set together.
It’s a very sad day for film fans.
1 Comment
My favorite line from Deconstructing Harry was delivered by Robin. I think it’s his wife who comes up to him and says that he looks soft and asks him if he ate some shellfish, and his response is, “No -this is not an allergic reaction.”