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A special interview with Robin Williams
Actor and comedian Robin Williams speaks candidly about his career and long battle with alcoholism.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
03/11/2010
Kerry O'Brien
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KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Two years ago the comedian and actor Robin Williams hit the road with a new stand-up routine for the first time in 16 years. Three months later he'd undergone urgent heart surgery and was fitted with a new heart valve from a cow, which of course he immediately worked into his routine. As well as being an accomplished actor with a long list of screen credits, including an Oscar for Good Will Hunting plus two other nominations, Williams is the comedian's comedian, and he's on tour in Australia for the first time with a show he calls Weapons of Self Destruction.
His quick-fire, at times manic, brand of humour knows few boundaries, but he doesn't spare himself either. Talking candidly, even scathingly, of his 30-year battle with alcoholism and falling off the wagon after 20 years of sobriety. I spoke with Robin Williams in Brisbane today.
Robin Williams, I assume this show isn't just about your own preferred weapons of self-destruction. I assume we're all in it?
ROBIN WILLIAMS, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: Oh, yes, everyone, everything that I've been through the last, well, couple of years is in it. It was put together as kind of, "Let's talk about, because things, as they say, are getting really interesting."
KERRY O'BRIEN: For someone as high energy as you seem to be, to have been away from the full kind of circuit of stand up ...
ROBIN WILLIAMS: I did do a show in 2002. It was kind of after 9/11, that was a response to that, and it was about eight years, yeah. But coming back was great. It is interesting. Chris Rock says it's like being a prize-fighter: you gotta get ready, and you gotta be physically ready and emotionally ready and obviously, you know, intellectually and psychologically ready to get out and get in front of people and do what you do. The great news is: if it works well, great; if it doesn't, not so good. The metaphors are you killed or you die. So those are the two.
KERRY O'BRIEN: When you're in full flight, it's as if the words are struggling to keep up with the brain.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Sometimes, yeah. Oliver Sacks says it's like voluntary Tourettes.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, I'll come back to Oliver Sacks a little bit later. But I assume that there has to be a serious discipline behind the free flow, or is it always just a high wire act?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Totally. No, no, I mean, you do have things kind of in the back of your mind, but sometimes you'll get, like, broken field-running where there'll be an opportunity to talk about something and you'll go off on it. I mean, occasionally somebody will say something or there'll be something new and you'll find a new idea. But, yeah, there is - behind it, there's thought and preparation and ideas, but you work them out on stage; you find out pretty quickly what works or what doesn't work. And sometimes the thing is to take the courage to say, "This may not be working here, but hold on, it might be working later on." Like the idea - I tried it once on stage of a - Mort Sahl, I talked to him today and he was talking about America as a country that looks like it's gonna go into rehab soon, and I thought there'd be a rehab for old - call it empires. "Hello, feeling like you used to be top of the world? Somewhat not empowered anymore? Powerless, really? Come on in. Come on, don't be afraid. These are the French. (Adopting French accent) 'Ello. We once had it all, but now we win the Melbourne Cup and we try to do all this crazy thing and now we make great food.' The Italians? (speaks Italian in Italian accent). The Russians? (adopts Russian accent). 'Don't ask!. We are working slowly through all of our problems.'
KERRY O'BRIEN: You forgot the English.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: (Adopts English accent). "Hello! Used to have everything. Now we're just basically horribly literate, incredibly intellectual and bitter about certain things, but moving on and moving through, God bless us all."
KERRY O'BRIEN: You're not easy on yourself in this show, are you?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: No. You know, as an alcoholic I talk about some warning signs like DUIs in a cul-de-sac, things like that. The idea of, you know, have you been through it to talk about it to see, like, you know, this is what you go through: heart surgery, alcoholism - I went to rehab in wine country just to keep my options open, and the idea of, you know, these are the things you gotta talk about.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well you've got your own vineyard.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Yes, that's like Ghandi owning a delicatessen. "What are you doing?" "This is not for my consumption."
KERRY O'BRIEN: So you were dry for 20 years?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Yes.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Why did you fall off?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: I was in a little town in Alaska; it wasn't the end of the world, but you can see it from there. And it was like all of a sudden I thought, "I could drink". It's that same thought you have if you look off a large building and go, "I can fly." And within a week it was like gone, you know. And now, I realise I can't, so that was a gift, you know.
KERRY O'BRIEN: How vividly can you remember falling into the trap in the first place with cocaine and alcohol?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: I can't vividly remember anything. It's like there is this thing for alcoholics called a blackout which isn't really a blackout, it's more like sleep-walking with activities. And I believe it's your conscience going into a Witness Protection Program. Going, "You're about to have sex with a hobbit. I've got to go now. Good luck. I'm checking out. I'm leaving the body on, but we're not gonna remember anything. Good luck to you. Take care."
KERRY O'BRIEN: But do you remember getting into it? Was it a gradual thing?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Getting into it? No. It was very gradual. It was just: "And you're off," you know, "You're off and running." And then the alcohol kicked in with the (inaudible), and then eventually you realise - I remember stopping it on my own because I was about to have a son and I didn't want to be coked up going, "Hey, dad loves you. Here's a little switch: I'm gonna throw up on you." You know, you don't wanna be like that. And I had to kind of go - but I did it alone. So that was why, you know, 20 years without any help.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Of course there are people who would say, "Why did you ever need cocaine? You're as fast without it as the heaviest cocaine addict would be."
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah, it's that weird thing. I think I did it because it would actually allow me not to talk. It was like, you know, reverse medication - you know, why they give Ritalin to hyperactive children is that idea of kind of, "Oh, OK, I don't have to talk to people. It kind of shuts you down." Which is the word, you know, self-medication.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And I've read that your friend John Belushi's death from an overdose was ...
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Yeah, that scares you.
KERRY O'BRIEN: ... a bit of a rude shock for you.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Totally. And that - but more importantly my son. I think that was the beginning of kind of, you know, thinking outside the box of: you've got a responsibility and it's more than you.
KERRY O'BRIEN: How hard was it to break the grip the second time around?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Um, not hard once you go to rehab.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Really?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: That's the beginning of kind of, you know - the idea is you've gotta surrender; you gotta just say, "I can't do it." 'Cause, you know, I went to rehab with a lot of doctors and psychiatrists. And the more intelligent you think you are, the harder it is to let go. "I've got a solution: I'll just drink a little bit." It's like saying, "I'll just partially circumcise myself and I'll be fine." And then you have to go: nope - you lose. You can't do it. You need help. And at that point, that's the beginning. And then, you know, once you do that, you're (inaudible).
KERRY O'BRIEN: The world has come to see you as a brilliantly high-octane comedian who tried his hand at acting, but you actually trained as an actor first at Julliard in New York?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Totally.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Is one a passion more than the other or do they go hand in glove?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: They both - they feed each other. I mean, the comedy forces you to deal with fear and the idea of putting yourself out there, and the acting is more like going within and finding all the different parts of a character and especially when you're playing the really dark strange characters like in 'One Hour Photo' where you get to explore photo behaviour you'd prison time for. It's that idea of, "You're playing a killer." "Really?" And part of your brain's going, "That would be fun, wouldn't it? Yeah." But that's the joy of acting where you get to explore all sorts of different - you know, all those aspects of human behaviour and then you could take that back to comedy in terms of the concentration, so they feed each other, they're symbiotic.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Can we talk briefly about some of the people who've influenced your work or whose work you really enjoy? For instance, I saw you with Jonathon Winters ...
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh my God.
KERRY O'BRIEN: ... on David Letterman. There was clearly a very strong bond there?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh, he's the best.
(on Late Show with David Letterman, archive footage, 1986): Dad, did you sign those papers? Did you sign the papers? We need the house, daddy! Did you sign the papers?
JONATHON WINTERS: These ones?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: That's it, but you signed it upside-down again.
JONATHON WINTERS: I still love ya.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: He's a wonderful friend and he just had heart surgery and he's doing great. He had two stints put in. And I called him, I said, "John, how are you?" "Ahhh, I had an operation performed by Japanese surgeons. It was cheaper. When I told 'em I was in the war, they weren't pleased." And whenever I talk to him, it's really wonderful. He's the best. He's - for me, he's the Buddha. He is the teacher, very powerful influence.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Who are the actors you've enjoyed?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh my God, working with - here's the weird thing - I got to - Marlon Brando taught an acting class very briefly and I got to take it. I mean, he said, "You know, if you come in here, it's gonna be crazy. I don't know what I'll say because you'll have me laughing so much." At one point his dog was basically licking his arse. "Wouldn't that be a great behaviour to see in a film." I went, "Wow, if you're that flexible, way to go." But it's - you know, of the actors I've worked with, oh, Max von Sydow, Walter Matthau - all of them. It's been great. You know, you just walk away from the experience - I mean, the boys in Good Will Hunting - and they are boys, I mean, both of them, Matt and Ben. It was an incredible experience. And you walk away - there's been no movie that I've walked away from, even the one that didn't do well where you don't go, "I learned a lot."
KERRY O'BRIEN: What about Dead Poets Society with Peter Weir?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh my God! One of the greatest experiences. It was incredible. It was the true learning experience, because Peter's more than a director, he's a teacher. I don't know anybody who's worked with him that comes away going, "Well, that was nice." You come away a different person. He infuses you. Like when we were doing that movie, he gave us poetry, he gave us music - he played music during takes. It would just get you into this incredible spirit and very inspiring. I remember when the boys stood on their desk, I was going, "This is very powerful." And I looked over and I saw a Teamster crying and I went, "OK, this is really working." (Adopting Teamster accent) "You kinda rattled us crazy. I don't know why. The boys on the desk is gettin' me crazy."
(excerpt from Dead Poets Society, 1989)
ACTOR: Captain, my captain.
ACTOR II: Sit down, Mr Anderson. Do you hear me? Sit down! Sit down! This is your final warning, Anderson. How dare you.
(end of excerpt)
ROBIN WILLIAMS: But it was this inspirational movie where the first time I did a film where people were touched beyond the movie, where they wanna change their lives, and I hope for the better. Many people said they became teachers; I went, "Oh, good luck," especially picking that profession in America when you know that's gonna be really - you have to be dedicated to be that.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Is there anything you can't find something funny in? Is there any no-go area for you?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: I don't know. You'll find it; when you do, you'll know it the moment you do it and I don't want to explore that most of the time.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Hasn't happened yet?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Oh, there'll be things where you might get someone - you'll say something and people go, "Oh" and you go - you don't want to really - I'm not out to attack people in that sense, but you want to talk about things, but sometimes you go, "There will be people offended or hurt and you go, "OK, I've said it," you know, and you have to go - in the process of doing comedy, not everyone will find it funny.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well you did offend Kevin Rudd?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Yes, I did. And that was by accident. It was weird. I was trying to talk about the Australian accent and saying it's a combination of English and I used the word redneck and I went, OK, good old boy or I can say Welsh samurai. But the idea that all of a sudden I offended the Prime Minister of Australia, and the next day he offended the Governor of Alabama when he said perhaps Mr Williams should spend some time in Alabama before he calls someone a redneck. Cut to the Governor of Alabama saying, "Perhaps the Prime Minister should spend some time in Alabama before he realises that we're decent, hard-working people." Now I've created a linguistic war between two accents - "I'll let me tell you right now." "No, right now, let me tell you right now." "No, come on ...". And meanwhile a Navaho code talker's going, "I will talk to them to try and bring them back to a place of peace. Kevin will - he meant no offence. It was mainly linguistic."
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well, Kevin Rudd is no longer Prime Minister.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: I know, he's gone away.
KERRY O'BRIEN: Well he's still around. He's Foreign Minister.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Ha! Is he really? Congrats. Good job, Kev.
KERRY O'BRIEN: You've got so much success behind you; is there anything left undone?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Susan Boyle. Susan Boyle on Ice. No. People say that when they said, "Who would play her in the movie?," they went, "Me." And went, "Oh, no, no, please, that's taking Mrs Doubtfire way too far." I don't know what's left to do. I'm doing a play on Broadway in the spring, so that'll be interesting. It's a very weird piece called the Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo. That'll be a discipline. That'll be eight shows a week.
KERRY O'BRIEN: So what drove that decision?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: A really interesting play, kind of talking about the war in Iraq and about pretty much everything. It's a bit like Goddo in Iraq. It sounds like "What?," but I think it'll be - it's not an easy play, but I don't do things easy.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And how's your health now, how's the heart?
ROBIN WILLIAMS: Good. The heart is good. The bovine valve works. It's nice. I give a great quart of cream.
KERRY O'BRIEN: (Laughs).
ROBIN WILLIAMS: "What does that mean? Stop. Naughty and nice. Don't go there."
KERRY O'BRIEN: Robin Williams, thanks very much for talking with us.
ROBIN WILLIAMS: You're welcome boss. Thanks.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And Robin Williams' national tour begins in Brisbane tomorrow, moving to Melbourne on November 7 and Sydney on November 11.
