Interview
courtesy of Warner Bros
An Oscar winner for his performance in Good
Will Hunting, Robin Williams has long since established his
dramatic credentials, but remains best known for his comedy
roles. These have come in such films as Good Morning Vietnam,
Mrs Doubtfire, The Birdcage, Patch Adams, Hook, Jumanji and
the animated films Robots and Aladdin.
Other films include
Awakenings, The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society. In George
Miller’s box office smash Happy
Feet he voices the penguin characters
Ramon, and Lovelace the Guru, key allies for our hero Mumble
(voiced by Elijah Wood) to fulfil his destiny and save
his Antarctic home.
After a run of serious roles, is it fun to be back in a
couple of comedic roles here?
“It was liberating in a great way, just working with
George. He would let us go, with Ramon I was in a room with
four other Latino comics so it was pretty crazy to have that
kind of freedom. And because its computer generated entertainment
it’s great to know that someone didn’t draw for
two years, and go ‘oh please just say the words’.
We had this freedom, with George basically closing his eyes
and saying ‘slower’. It was like bad phone sex.
But it was pretty great to be doing Lovelace too, which is
kind of a Barry White character. It was great, because George
has a great sense of humour; he’s done Mad Max and
Babe – that gives you a certain breadth of character.”
You display a talent for speaking Spanish too, as Ramon.
“Gracias. When you’re working with four Latin
comics you’d better speak Spanish or you’re a
dead man, you’ve got to be quick.”
Are there particular challenges in singing My Way in Spanish?
“For me to sing in Spanish it’s important, number
one, to have the words in front of me. And also to be able
to sing like The Gypsy Kings allows you to have a certain
amount of, los huevos, cojones. Mas grande cojones. It was
fun to sing like that, and also because he was singing Cyrano
style behind him. It was great to see. It was really nice
to have that kind of vocal. When George said ‘would
you sing like that?’ I went ‘alright I’ll
try’. It was fun.”
Against the comedic backdrop of a dancing penguin there
are serious environmental themes to Happy Feet. Are these
important to you?
“I live in a country where our President thinks the
Kyoto Accord is a nice car. There’s no such thing as
global warming, that’s why they had Michael Crichton
speak to Congress, which is always great when you want scientific
fact, to get a really good science fiction writer to talk
to you about it. As for the dangers of industrial fishing,
there was recently an article in the New York Times that
we’ll have fished out the oceans, or 98%, which leaves
two crabs and a haddock by the year 2048. So that leaves
us 42 years of fishing, until finally it’s ‘no
more, thank you’. The idea of fishing out the oceans,
that’s a big idea. First the penguins, and then us.
So there are some big ideas to talk about here.”
So how ‘green’ are you?
“I guess I’m a Californian liberal, I have a
hybrid and a large SUV. I ride bikes. People say that I’m
a tree hugger, but I do a lot more than hug trees. If you
find the right knotty pine…………I
like basically having my drinking water without faecal matter,
that’s really nice. Or acceptable levels of strychnine.
I’m an air breather, I’ve gotten used to that
over the years. I enjoy that, and the idea of doing small
things over a period of time. I think there are certain things
you can do for water control in America, because that will
be our most precious resource. In America you pay more for
water than you do for gas. Most people don’t keep track, ‘four
dollars a gallon for gas’, you’re saying ‘you’re
paying five dollars a gallon for water, and your body runs
for a long time without gas’. That, for me, has been
interesting to track.”
In another of your forthcoming films you play President
Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican with far greener credentials
than the present incumbent. How did you find that?
“I actually play a wax figure of Roosevelt, but it
was great to do the research on him and realise that he was
a man put in power by industrialists. They put him in as
Vice President and the next thing you know President McKinley
was assassinated and he became President. He put into place
a lot of great things; he established the National Park system
and worked for environmental protection, and also consumer
protection. He was a very brave man, and a brilliant man,
a brilliant Republican which is a phrase you haven’t
heard in a while. When George W. Bush said ‘is our
children learning?’ that’s when I thought playing
Roosevelt was a great idea, because he was an extraordinary
human being. It was an honour even to play a wax figure of
him.”
As far as Happy Feet was concerned, you and some of your
castmates got to perform together rather than in isolation,
which is more usual for animated movies. How was that?
“It was amazing to see how everybody
kind of got into it, especially with the fact that we all
had our own microphones. It was always a question of keeping
us working, and George would not stop until he got what
he needed which was great.”
Have you ever met your near namesake, Robbie Williams?
“I’ve never met him, but we do tend to get phone
calls for women looking for him, but then they realise ‘oh
you’re the hairy one, damn!’. I’ve never
met him but I would love to have a sing off, which sounds
pretty obscene. It would be interesting if the two of us
meet and we go ‘great, that’s alright then, well
done Robin, I’m Robbie. Great. So you don’t even
know my music do you?’ ‘No I don’t, I listen
to Coldplay’.”
Was the ‘go forth and multiply’ line
one you particularly relished?
“You mean from Lovelace? I think the idea there was
making a character in a kids’ movie who has other messages,
bringing it home. As I say, it’s not the size of the
beak; it’s how you work it. I had so much fun, here’s
the drill. I wanted to work with George Miller because damn,
Babe was hot! But I had fun doing that, especially ‘go
forth and multiply’ for people who picked up on that.”
You seem to have been so busy, what does the future hold
for you now?
“There have been six movies that will come out this
year over a period of time. They weren’t all meant
to come out at once, but because of financing they all seemed
to happen this year. My next project is to take it easy for
a while, the idea is to take some time off and be with my
family. It’s been nice to have these movies out; it’s
also nice to be out of rehab and go ‘hey, I’m
back’. Recently I was performing in Comic Relief in
Vegas, and it’s weird to get out of rehab and go to
Vegas. Great idea. It’s like going to detox in Colombia.
It’s been great, but now I think I’m ready to
take some time off, to be with family and hang out in California
and ride my bikes. That’ll be great.”
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