one hour conversation


09.02

robin williams—fresh off insomnia—continues his dark streak with one hour photo, which opens august 21, playing a photo-kiosk clerk obsessed with a nice suburban clan. williams recently talked for an hour or so with the film's director, mark romanek. we listened.

mr: when i met you the first time, i thought it was a courtesy meeting. and then at lunch, you said, "i'd like to do it," and i did an alan king spit take.

rw: i was looking for anything i hadn't done before. it's weird that this script came and then insomnia came. i didn't all of a sudden say, "keep finding me murderers, let's keep pushing the envelope until we finally do goebbels on ice."

mr: the reason it made perfect sense for you to play this role–even though it did seem odd initially– is that you always play outsiders.

rw: right. very lonely characters. being an only child, i'm not wondering where that came from.

mr: like in awakenings or good morning vietnam...

rw: yeah, even mork was an outsider. this guy coming in with a totally different perspective.

mr: what do you think mork wanted?

rw: he wanted to get laid. he didn't know it, but his penis was his nose, which makes it so difficult. every time he blew his nose, he fell asleep, which is so strange.

mr: one thing i realized while filming this movie is that it's interesting to watch an actor who's repressing a lot. and you were repressing a volcano.

rw: oliver sacks says that he thinks i have voluntary tourette's. when i perform, all of a sudden there's the same release.

mr: do you ever feel it's involuntary tourette's?

rw: sometimes when i do something and i can't come back. like the time i was on comic relief and i started doing the ventriloquist thing with billy crystal, but i kind of put my hand between his legs and did a talking penis. and then i went to whoopi and started to do a talking vagina, then my mind went, "oh, stop." i couldn't.

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