Robin Williams Talks About The Night Listener
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More on the Letter Toni Collette Received During Filming: ?I only know that it was kind of like, 'I hope you do this part well because it'd be great if you did it great.' It was well-written and much more articulate than that. She wasn't on medication. But it was like Armistead noticed where it came from, I think, and plus the handwriting he recognized. I mean, I think that after six years that he started to know the handwriting.
I think it was disturbing, but it was also like they thought that it would happen at some point.?
Working with Toni Collette: ?Working with Toni is amazing because she is a chameleon and coming from me that's a great compliment. She really transforms herself. She can go from being flat-out gorgeous to very vulnerable to being hideously frightening in a millisecond.
When she's playing that character in the basement, it's almost heartbreaking. The moment that you don't go along with it she's like, 'What?!' You realize that this is a violent woman, potentially violent - or has the potential to harm you if not physically then emotionally. She's good stuff, man. She's a great actress and really funny. Kick a** funny, which is always great - like Hilary Swank. Hilary will be doing a scene with you and then just all of a sudden go, 'What?'?
Audience Reactions to Williams? Latest Films: ?The fact that RV survived the initial maelstrom and then kept going is wonderful. And then you get guys coming up to you going, 'I took my family to that and we laughed our a**es off.' It's like 'Sullivan's Travels.' It's like you go, 'Hey, dude.
That's what was wonderful, to have a good time.' It never claimed to be anything else. I wasn't trying to change your life. What message did you want to take out with this? 'Have a good time and a little poop. Good luck.'
But with The Night Listener, if people go to this and are affected by, it that's what we made it for. If it disturbs you on that level and you kind of examine the nature of connection and storytelling? Like even Armistead, he described him one way and then the guy told him exactly what it was and it was much more mundane. It's that idea. Authors will always expand, with even biographies - autobiographies definitely. People will remember incidents or neglect incidents. Lie by default on that level, but maybe to protect certain people or to change things they will omit.?
Taking Comedy Too Far: Williams? serious and compassionate side comes across in his dramatic roles but when he?s doing comedy, has there ever been a time when he?s taken a joke too far? ?Oh, yeah, I have. There've been times where I went, 'Oh, well, yeah. I shouldn't have talked about the chair.' But sometimes you do it and they love it. It's hard to tell. When I was with Chris [Reeve] we would make jokes like, 'How is the lawn blower tie?' because he had the respirator. And then I call it the Black & Decker tie. The first time I introduced him and I said, 'Here's my friend, Christopher Reeve. He's on a roll.' Just sometimes if you walk the edge you're going to fall and say something that will be offensive on that level, but obviously you can't stop though. If you do that and say something that was offensive, afterwards you say, 'Listen, I'm sorry. I went too far.'?
The Joker Rumors: Robin Williams? name was included in the batch of actors rumored to be in the running for the part of The Joker in the next Batman movie (since this interview it?s been all but confirmed that Heath Ledger won the role). Williams worked with Batman director Christopher Nolan in Insomnia so the idea of Nolan hiring Williams for the part of The Joker wasn?t really far-fetched.
Asked about whether he?d like to play The Joker, Williams said, ?Oh, God. I would love to do that?? Where would he take the character? Would he take it over the top or maybe even darker? ?You could go both,? said Williams. ?As in madness there is a lot of places you can go. I think that you can really explore how bright and how nasty funny he is, which is what I guess Kevin [Spacey] did with Lex Luthor. He made him really funny and yet still damaged and yet still as evil is, accessible and still horrific. Jumping back and forth all the time, 'Kidding. I'm kidding.'?
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