Sept. 30: Robin Williams
When I was in theatre school,
our teacher assigned us to interview someone in the same field we
aspired to work in. He wanted us to be as specific as possible. If we
wanted to be actors, we couldn't just satisfy ourselves by interviewing a
professional actor. We had to interview a comic actor, or a Stratford
veteran, or a musical theatre specialist.
I scored quite the coup when I got an interview with Gary Ouellet, the late Canadian magician who, for a while, was an advisor to David Copperfield.
But a girl in my class scored the ultimate interview - Robin Williams.
The whole class was amazed. The student (I'll call her Brenda) was a gifted actress; had even been accepted at the National Theatre School. She reminded me of Lily Tomlin. I acted in a play with her once - Christopher Durang's Naomi in the Living Room - and she brought down the house. I don't know where she is right now. I remember she had an issue with her heart and there was a scary moment when she had an episode in class and paramedics had to carry her out on a stretcher. We were all relieved the next day when it turned out she was just fine.
Anyway, Brenda got the assignment and she decided pretty quickly that she wanted to interview Robin Williams. She made a phone call to someone who made another phone call until she got in touch with someone who worked for Robin Williams. She made her request, probably not holding out much hope, and was surprised when her answer was yes.
There were some conditions. She wasn't allowed to ask any personal questions about his family (he'd gone through a divorce a few years earlier) and Brenda promised to keep her enquiries professional.
I remember the day of the interview.
Brenda wasn't in class that morning and everyone had this sort of sixth sense notion that she was talking to Robin. When she finally made her appearance, everyone gravitated to her. Brenda's eyes were sparkling and her whole body kind of glowed. Class stopped right there; everyone wanted to know about Brenda's interview with the great man.
"It's all kind of a blur right now," she said. "He asked me about the drama program and I told him some things. He even laughed at something I said."
-
Personally, I never found Robin Williams that funny. I don't deny that he was a genius and that his brain worked 50 times faster than most people's. His stand-up comedy did nothing for me (Mrs. Doubtfire is both overrated and insulting.) However, I really enjoyed him as a dramatic actor. His performances in Good Will hunting and Good Morning Vietnam were amazing but I think I liked him best when he was exploring his darker side in projects like Insomnia and, especially, One-Hour Photo.
His passing is a tragedy.
I scored quite the coup when I got an interview with Gary Ouellet, the late Canadian magician who, for a while, was an advisor to David Copperfield.
But a girl in my class scored the ultimate interview - Robin Williams.
The whole class was amazed. The student (I'll call her Brenda) was a gifted actress; had even been accepted at the National Theatre School. She reminded me of Lily Tomlin. I acted in a play with her once - Christopher Durang's Naomi in the Living Room - and she brought down the house. I don't know where she is right now. I remember she had an issue with her heart and there was a scary moment when she had an episode in class and paramedics had to carry her out on a stretcher. We were all relieved the next day when it turned out she was just fine.
Anyway, Brenda got the assignment and she decided pretty quickly that she wanted to interview Robin Williams. She made a phone call to someone who made another phone call until she got in touch with someone who worked for Robin Williams. She made her request, probably not holding out much hope, and was surprised when her answer was yes.
There were some conditions. She wasn't allowed to ask any personal questions about his family (he'd gone through a divorce a few years earlier) and Brenda promised to keep her enquiries professional.
I remember the day of the interview.
Brenda wasn't in class that morning and everyone had this sort of sixth sense notion that she was talking to Robin. When she finally made her appearance, everyone gravitated to her. Brenda's eyes were sparkling and her whole body kind of glowed. Class stopped right there; everyone wanted to know about Brenda's interview with the great man.
"It's all kind of a blur right now," she said. "He asked me about the drama program and I told him some things. He even laughed at something I said."
-
Personally, I never found Robin Williams that funny. I don't deny that he was a genius and that his brain worked 50 times faster than most people's. His stand-up comedy did nothing for me (Mrs. Doubtfire is both overrated and insulting.) However, I really enjoyed him as a dramatic actor. His performances in Good Will hunting and Good Morning Vietnam were amazing but I think I liked him best when he was exploring his darker side in projects like Insomnia and, especially, One-Hour Photo.
His passing is a tragedy.
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