Robin Williams has to be one of the most beloved celebrities, maybe ever. The mark he left on the world, both in Hollywood and among his fans, is unmatched. It seems everybody who ever worked with Williams looks back on the time fondly, but I’m not sure anybody had quite the experience that Pierce Brosnan did on Mrs. Doubtfire.
A great deal has been said over the years about the way Robin Williams would riff on the set of Mrs. Doubtfire. There have been claims in the past that there’s an NC-17 rated cut of the film, when what there really are, are outtakes of Williams going off script and apparently getting quite dirty. While participating in a segment with Vanity Fair, Pierce Brosnan confirmed that while filming a scene involving his and Williams’ characters in the restaurant near the end of the film, the comedian’s language was decidedly not PG-13. It ultimately led to the eventual James Bond star laughing hysterically. Brosnan recalled…
There’s reams of footage of me just kind of falling around on the floor with laughter, and he went really blue. He really was quite colorful, because the children weren’t there, and it was just Robin and myself, and he knew he had me in the crosshairs with his humor. I loved the man.
The scene in question sees Brosnan’s Stuart Dunmeyer and Mrs. Doubtfire a.k.a. Daniel Hillard left alone at the restaurant table, where Doubtfire suggests that the jewelry Sally Field’s character, Miranda, was just given was an attempt to get her in bed. The lines Williams uses are already pretty risque, but he apparently went even further off, pushing the limits of what the movie could use.
One of the reasons Mrs. Doubtfire is still a popular movie, and one of the most iconic Robin Williams movies ever, is the incredible makeup work that transformed Williams into the titlular character. The work would win the movie an Oscar, and it turns out Pierce Brosnan only ever saw the actor in the makeup. Believe it or not, their first meeting was an absolutely wild experience where he met a strange combination of Williams and Doubtfire that sounds hilarious but also mildly terrifying. Brosnan explained…
I really never worked with Robin Williams. I only worked with Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, the very first day that I was on set up in San Francisco. They said, ‘Do you want to meet Robin?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to meet him.’ And I went into the makeup trailer, and Robin was sitting there in a Hawaiian shirt — and his kind of haired arms hanging out and his hairy legs — but had the head of Mrs. Doubtfire. So he said, [mimicking Doubtfire] ‘Oh, Pierce, you’re so handsome. Come here, give us a kiss.’ [Transitions to deeper voice] ‘Hey baby, what’s happening?’ He jumped all over the place.
Many people who knew Williams have spoken about just how great a person he was. Some of the Mrs. Doubtfire cast members have spoken about just how wonderful the comedian was on set. Pierce Brosnan adds himself to that list. It’s clear that Williams left a great impression on the actor from their brief time together. He continued…
He was such a kind-hearted man as well. He was such a beautiful soul, and no one made me laugh quite like Robin Williams did.
Chris Columbus‘ 1993 film remained so popular that there was even talk of a Mrs. Doubtfire 2 before the untimely death of Robin Williams. Certainly, it’d be difficult to do a true sequel without Williams.
As a fan of Mrs. Doubtfire, who, as a teenager, stood outside the restaurant while the finale of the movie was filmed, trying to get a glimpse of the star, I would love to get my hands on the “reams of footage” that we’ll likely never get to see. As funny as the finished film is, it sounds like the stuff we didn’t get see is what made the experience truly special for Pierce Brosnan and others.