Robin Williams - Parkinson interview [2002]

[0:01]You didn't arrive with Mr. Clinton, did you? No, Mr. Clinton came on his own, I think. He did.

[0:08]Oh, well, that was really.

[0:12]As in the sense of getting here. Yes, of course. Oh, baby, who's your daddy? Who loves you? Yeah. What about the problem of traveling nowadays? The airport security. Do you have any problems? It's a bit difficult now. You know, in the old days, it used to be, oh, get on the plane, come on, get on the plane. Oh, what's that? Oh, that's a gun. Okay, get on the plane. Now it's hardcore, you know, it's basically, they they take away everything from you. First of all, if you're if you're having meat on the plane, you don't have a knife, because that could be a weapon. So it's like, it's like the quest for firefly. I'll do the arm! I'm sorry, sir. And they take away things like nail clippers, because that could be turned into a weapon. What do they think you're going to be going, open the cockpit door? Or the bitch loses a hangnail. Come on. It's you know, they had. You all right, coach? Oh, that's all right. My dear God. Um I grew, you know, I live in San Francisco, so then when you go through the metal detector, there, there are some pierced people there. Take out your keys. Oh, tip of the iceberg, sir.

[1:21]You know, it's a bizarre thing, you know. When you see a a girl with a pierced tongue, I asked this girl, I said, why did you pierce your tongue? And she said, it increases sexual stimulation. You know, and it would be like, this would be like, ah, it's all right, my darling. Don't be afraid. Something simple. But the security is tight now. It's it's a bizarre thing. And we now have, you know, the office of Homeland Security. What's that? Well, it's basically in America, it's it's to to watch over and warn us when things bad are going to happen, because every so often Rumsfeld comes out and goes, I don't know where, I don't know when. But something awful's going to happen. Hope for the day, no further questions. It's like, what is it, the central intuitive agency now? I'm getting a feeling of a man wearing a shoe that hisses. Well, all they've learned so far is what the FBI can share with us is, beware of people who take flight school and understand take off and landing. Number one. Number two, anyone who gets on a shoe, who gets on a plane with a shoe that goes, warning, warning, you over there. And now people are wide awake on the it used to be on the, you know, the red-eye flight, they would get on the plane, take whatever medication they could, wake up in Russia going, this isn't Cleveland. And now they basically, everyone's wide awake, looking for anyone ordering hummus.

[2:50]You know, and they have. They have, you know, this thing of, they say there's no racial profiling, but no. A little woman will come on, a sweet little Southern stewardess, and go, 'Ladies and gentlemen, before we get on Flight 5, I just want to read off a list of names. These are just, these are random bag checks. These are these are totally random. I'm just going to read off a list of names. Hassan Bin Said.

[3:13]Haben bin laid. Judy Smith. 14 Arabs and a blonde. And every black man and every Hispanic man in the room was going, thank you, God. We're off the list! Oh, sweet Lord Almighty. Going away now. And it's always a difficult thing because pilots are always, you know, the pilot used to come home with that whole Chuck Yeager rap where they go, 'Hey, everybody. I've just had a few cocktails. Let's take this sucker down to the end of the runway and see what it'll do. Now they come on, they're very loving and they go, 'Hey, I love all of you.' The stewardess comes out and goes, 'In case of a cabin seizure, a small Louisville slugger will fall from the ceiling. Grab with both hands, aim for their the assailant's head, knees, and groin, and keep hitting. Basically, it's home defense, just like you had during World War II. But you mean Dad's Army? Yes, Dad's Army. Old men with a colostomy bag and a pitchfork. I captured Rudolf Hess personally. I threw my colostomy bag and covered him in shite. Go! Get out of that Fokker, and I'm talking about the plane. Go! Step away! Is it true, what? Is it true that Winston Churchill was sometimes so drunk that they had a guy from the BBC do some of his favorite speeches? That's apparently been reported. Really? That's wonderful. The guy who did Winnie the Pooh. So he was going, we will fight him on the beaches in the air, on the land. Eor and Tigger. But God bless her. You have God bless, you have Tony Blair now. We do. We do. And you have President Bush. Yes. Yes, we Oh, yo. Let's drink to them.

[5:00]Amazing man. Just don't ask him to spell. I love watching Bush watch Tony speak, because he's going, I can't spell most of those words. You just see him going, you know, some men are born great, some achieve greatness, some get it as a graduation gift. He's George the Second, the boy king, no one realized. That's enough to come to the purpose of the visit. The purpose of the visit. It is, up until now, I think it's Billy Connelly who held the record for talking longest without a question prompting it. Well, I think, I mean, I.

[5:40]And knowing that the two of you are great friends, I wonder who stops talking first. Oh, it's difficult to know, you know. Once you get up there and there are people playing dead cats, you can't stop. For me, I get up there, and it's wild, because he's just, he just goes, he'll tell you stories about, 'Are you doing, yeah, right?' And once I get off the plane in Scotland, I need subtitles. It's very hard. Ruby, hey, hey. Are you doing now? What? You're going to tell me what I mean, Ruby, what do you mean, you're going to tell me what I mean? That's all they can invent golf. They could have a couple of Guinness and then the next thing you know, what's, here's my idea for a sport. I knock a ball into a gopher hole. Oh, you mean like pool? No, forget pool, that was a straight stick. A little broken stick, a whack a ball into a gopher hole. Oh, you mean like croquet? No, that's croquet. That's for the rich. You're pushing it for. I put the whole hundreds of yards away. Oh, kind of like a bowling alley? Oh, no, way. You push it in the way. I put stuff in the way, like trees and bushes. So you're whacking the ball and you're sitting in there, whacking away and you feel like you're going to have a stroke. That's what we'll call it. Because every time you hit the ball, you think you're going to die. And right near the end, I'll put a nice flat bit with a tiny flag to give you a hope. And that's not a pool, and a sandbox to grab your ball. Do you do this one time? Oh, no, 18 times.

[7:17]But. The question is. The question. Ah, the first question. The question, the first question. I've been spewing minutes. In the middle of the interview. The producer's like, no, no, the question. At we on line one. How is he doing there? You don't figure in the diaries, do you, the Edwina Curry diaries? Oh, the Edwina Curry, I hope not. Or my transatlantic adventure, perhaps? Oh, an adventure weekend with Edwina Curry. It's more like Wild Kingdom, really. I took off the paper collar, just long enough to find John again.

[7:58]Oh, come on, let the dogs out. We'll find them. Come on.

[8:08]Let the dogs out. Come on, tell her. Come on. Even Prince Charles is going, 'It's all right.' We'll find him by Tuesday. And nurse Phil's going, come on, nobody's. But the question is, yes, yes, yes.

[8:33]We'll see if you can get to it by the end. The question is. Now, this, this wonderful manic stand-up performer there. And this extraordinary flow of laughter. And then in the play, in the film that you're playing now, 'One Hour Photo', you're a very silent man. You're totally, utterly bland. Yes. And faceless almost. Yeah, that was the purpose, to actually do the exact opposite of what you've just seen. And you managed it incredibly well. Yeah, I think because I could do what I've just done and what I do on stage and have all of that energy and then let all of that go and be this man, like you said, who is almost faceless, who's so bland that he lives vicariously through other people's photographs. And that's why I did it. To be in a movie that's kind of so unsettling, because of that stillness, I think it takes people by surprise, which is good. It's a very sinister film. But but it it it in the end, we will we can't talk about the the ending of it, but it's it's a it's a many levels. It's not quite what you expect. Yeah, it always takes strange turns where you think, oh, no, he's that, and they go, oh, no, it's something else. And even the very end, which people are thinking, oh, don't, and then it takes another turn, which is good. Exactly. The ending's brilliant. Yeah, it keeps you always going, it takes you one way, it always takes another turn, which is good. That's why I loved it when I read it. And when I saw the the videos, Mark Romanek was a video director. And I in videos, he had done so many different things visually, I went, I've got to do this movie because it combines both, the visuals and this great script. I went, this is, you know, really interesting work. Well, in it then, you play Sy, who is the guy of the One Hour Photo Catter. Yeah, the man who basically sees the pictures of, you know, you and the thong. Not you. Not me. It's a lovely picture, though. I like the one in the chaps better. But, you know, it is that he basically develops people's pictures, and he's been kind of fascinated with this one family. A very like the InStyle poster family. A beautiful family, beautiful husband and wife and a child, and a beautiful house. Everything that's the total opposite of what his life is. And, you know, that's kind of his life. And the fantasy goes to a degree where he imagines that he's their uncle, he imagines he can walk into their house. Which he's basically part of their family. Which is this sequence now.

[10:45]It's about loneliness, it's about wanting to be remembered, too, isn't it? That well, the thing that there's a great line in the movie where he says with family pictures, it's that someone cared enough about me to take my picture, I exist. And it's it's a moment in time, a happy moment. You know, very few times you take pictures of Uncle Pete going. It's that moment where you really do, especially when you look at old photographs, most of the time, like when we're at the flea market, in the movie, we're take all these old pictures and these are people who are gone, but there's a moment of them smiling and a moment of just a brief captured moment of happiness. Very nostalgic, aren't they? Yeah, very bizarre nostalgia. When you do a character like that, and you've made, what, 40 movies now? Oh, but I don't remember now. It is about 40. Goodwill humping, you know. Goodwill humping. The the adult versions of every movie you do, you know. Yeah, but but but what's what's the key to it, to the part? In in the sense that, I mean, you know, some actors say it's the walk, some say it's the. I think it was the look. I think when you said that kind of blandness. To bland everything out. Started with the hair, taking all color out of the hair, making the face so bland and so neutral that literally one day I was walking through the store, he works in like a big save mart, and I disappeared. And then Mark went, that's what I want. I want him to blend in, so that outside of that store, he's lost. He's like a, you know, he's a fish, a chameleon going, what color do I become now? And that's why he would fantasize about someone else's life. It also did it for me, the the shoes. Everyone a woman actually complimented me on my acting. I said, thank you, but that was the soundman. Because the shoes have that kind of. That's why I think it's some is it training on? Some small furry. Yeah, it was it was the walk combined with the some small furry animal. What are you doing there?

[12:24]Do be afraid, where live, for. Don't worry, for.

[12:31]It's always strange, but yeah, that that was part of it, the walk, the look. It all helps. I think it's kind of inside. And then the loneliness of a guy who's so isolated that he would think that pictures are the way to achieve another life. Have you ever been lonely, in your childhood, were you lonely? Um maybe. I wasn't an only child, so yeah. For a long time, it was just me and the puppet, but it was. You know, it was a bit of a, you know, an unusual time. People go, is that why you're so hairy, Rob? It was a, you know, an isolated child. It's a time delay thing where people go, oh, oh. But it was, you know, I could go back and use some of that as a sense memory of that. Talking about being being hairy, you want to say you're too furry to be a leading man. I was actually hit on by Coco the Gorilla. Were you? You know, she can sign. And it was amazing, because I I they took me to meet her because it was part of this program to raise money for a new habitat. So she signs to her trainer, 'Who's the blue-eyed simian?' And I went, 'Thank you.' And then she signs to her trainer to do this, and he goes, 'What is that? She wants you to lift your shirt.' I lift my shirt and she pinches both my nipples. And all of a sudden, I'm going, 'Whoa! Missy wants to play.' And then she grabs him by the hand and starts to take me in the back room, and the trainer's going, 'Coco, no.' And the trainer's going, 'I can't help you.' And all of a sudden, I think that it's like the crocodile hunter's going to walk out and go, 'Oh, danger, danger, danger. She wants to bump uglies with him. Watch out, boys and girls, she's going to do the bone dance. Be careful. It's going to be some interesting little babies this fall.' But it was interesting. She hit on me. She went, she was like grooming me like, 'Oh.' It's hard when you when you have this much hair. I've seen mosquitoes take their own life. You just see him going, and then I'm gonna be a gonna be a gonna be a gonna be a Hard day. What about this this humor come from, this is some of us describe this your performance is being Tourette. Yeah, a voluntary Tourette's, which is different. Tourette's. You know, like it is a bit like that. I mean, there is that thing where I'll cross over the line sometimes, obviously, today I did, but then you had that look like, oh, do stop. I know, but there was that look like, we'll be getting to the questions soon.

[14:50]But it is that thing of where you go off on things. And you sometimes you get you'll you'll see a moment you go, oh, and you'll just pursue it and and it's like a little bit like possession. And it's yeah, it happens once in a while. But isn't it the moment it just comes, there's nothing pre-planned or anything? It's it's quite short. No, I mean, like today, there's a couple of quick short. Yeah, sequential. Or it's actually more like a fractal, but then we're getting even Stephen Hawking's going, 'Don't go there now.' I called his house one day, 'Hello, this is Stephen Hawking.' Yes, I'd like to leave a message. 'No, this is Stephen Hawking.' But it is that idea that it just kind of it's A then two, you know, you kind of, you know, you jump start and go to different places.

[15:29]Usually from some weird synapse firing. I I watched your your um last Broadway show, which you made in July, um live on Broadway, which has been recorded for HBO. I mean, that was a truly astonishing performance. Because for me, for two hours, I mean, you stand there. I don't, we seem to have no, there's no script, there's no prompt, there's nothing. No, you can't really. And you don't you don't tell long anecdotes either. I mean, it's all quick fire from a thousand different people. Because that was the way I started off. I started off in a club where it was usually you start off performing in bars where you can't really take time because people go, 'Hey!' And it's you know. What are you doing now? And those those are usually people who own the club. So I started to develop a style that was just very much like, you know, synoptic, quick firing, moving so they never really had a chance to lock, you know, lock on as a target. And then it started to develop as being this kind of idea of taking an idea and going with it and then breaking away. And that's been kind of the style. So it is extemporized to that extent, that you go. Yeah, it starts off, usually the first five minutes are like kind of getting, especially when different cities, I would start off talking about the city and then go off from there. And you you said in the in the research that your your influences were were one or two were English comics. Oh, yeah, Peter Sellers, amazingly. Really? Yeah, I mean, in terms of comic acting, I think for me the best movie was, oh, it doesn't get any better than Doctor Strangelove, because here's, you know, you know, all these distinct characters. I mean, besides Doctor Strangelove, which is the the ultimate Henry Kissinger. I never understood that movie till now. Hi, Mr. Kissinger, I've seen all of your bombs. Could you sign? It's the idea of him and all of those characters for me was the best. And, you know, I I one of the few people in America who had copies of the Goon Show. Really? And then, how did you get across that lake? I walked across those stones. Those aren't stones, those are alligators. I wonder why my legs were getting shorter. You know. That's an explosion that can only be heard by an idiot. What was that noise? Ah. You know, those are the things I kind of grew up with. And Jonathan Winters, but, you know, those are my influences. And Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Are your influences by them always well? Oh, yeah, no, you know, Derek and Clive, but we can't talk about that. No. No, without rubber rapping. But, you know, those were great comics. You also played the clubs there too, didn't you? You played. Oh, yeah, I played I played in London, which was great, the Comics Trip, the Comedy Store. I knew there was a comic strip. No, Robin, wrong. But, uh, and then I played a club in Windsor. Lenny Henry said, come out and play Windsor, which was a great idea, till I walked on stage and, you know, worst night of my comedy life. It was, this is all you heard in the audience. 'Ladies and gentlemen, Robin Williams.' And all you heard was, 'But don't you?' Not even, 'Get off.' It was just like this, like. And that's like that old thing where you see the comic, where he's on stage and I'm sweating more like Marlon Brando after Thai food. You know, my lower tract is going, should we release now, Robin? If you fart, you might get a laugh and get off stage. It was the most frightening night, but, you know, it was good to have in the back of your memory. It was a great thing. What about the balance of your life now? I mean, I do do feel you mainly do movies, of course, and you work you got three out this year, right? Yeah, I mean, I'll continue to do films, hopefully. But do you feel you have to every so often get out and explode all this energy on stage? It's a must, isn't it? Yeah, I think now, I did the last stand-up before this one was about 16 years ago, but I've realized that it's important to do for me, as, you know, it's cheaper than therapy, number one. And number two, there's so much to talk about, you know. You have a lot of things going on in the world. Just the Pope alone, what he's got.

[19:08]He tried to kill my father. Well, why don't you get a posse, lumpy? Let's go. Come on. Here we go. You know how if you want to do an impression of his father, all you have to do is take, well, what you do is you take John Wayne and tighten his ass. And there you have George W, the first. There he is. Going to say, can't use no syntax. What are you, Yoda? Come on. Yes, friend. No, I'm have a economy bad. You know, I think it's I think it's that's why I do comedy, just for the last few seconds, because it's like, all right, yeah, that was nice. We're gonna get serious points, serious points. You can talk you can dabble in them, you know. Robin Williams, thank you very much indeed. Mr. Hodkinson, thank you so.