14 Interesting Facts About Robin Williams
8. Robin & “The Shining”
Believe it or not, Stanley Kubrick considered casting Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro for the lead in “The Shining.”
Williams has certainly later shown he can handle darker thriller roles in “Insomnia” and “One Hour Photo,” but he might seem like an odd choice for this part so early on in his career.
Kubrick seriously considered him for this famous part, but after seeing him in “Mork & Mindy”, the famous director deemed him too psychotic for the role.
At the time Williams had yet to prove himself as a leading man in movies. He was merely a sitcom actor on a silly show where he played an alien. Stephen King and the studio weren’t fond of Kubrick’s selections, and Jack Nicholson was soon picked for the part.
Sure, Robin’s transition to dramatic acting didn’t occur until the late ’80s and many thought he wouldn’t be right for the role, but who knows, maybe he would have nailed it if he had won the part. Maybe he would have managed to impress audiences with his acting and it could have led to him to begin working in drama much earlier.
Jack Nicholson gives a great performance here and frankly, it kind of is hard to imagine Williams could have done any better.
Nicholson’s famous “Here’s Johnny” line was improvised by the actor, and if Robin Williams had taken the part, that little fragment of dialogue wouldn’t have been included in the film and wouldn’t have become a part of the cultural lexicon. Phew!?
