Dead Poets Society was one of the most popular coming-of-age films of the late '80s, showcasing Robin Williams' acting range and launching several young actors into their Hollywood careers. But according to Ethan Hawke, who played the timid Todd Anderson (the student who stands on his desk first) in the film, the famous comedian didn't make his own job easy.
Hawke shared on The Graham Norton Show what working with Williams was like after Norton said he understood their on-set relationship to be "a bit fractious."
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"Well, he was incredibly funny, right?" said Hawke. "And he was very relaxed and very inventive…and he would just improv constantly, all day long, and the more the crew laughed, the more he would go."
Despite Williams' hilarious antics, the film wasn't a comedy. Hawke struggled with the constant improv in light of his own acting work.
"I really wanted to be a serious actor," he said. "You know, I had read Stanislavski, and I had what was supposed to be in my pockets, and I really, really wanted to be in character, and I really didn't want to laugh. And the more I didn't laugh, the more insane he got. And he'd make fun, 'Oh, this one doesn't want to laugh,' and the more smoke would come out of my ears. He didn't understand I was trying to do a good job…so I thought he hated me, because he just constantly would lay into me."
After filming, Hawke went back to school thinking Williams "hated" him. Then one day, he got a phone call.
"It was from a big Hollywood agent. This guy says, 'I'm Robin Williams' agent, and he says that you're gonna be somebody, and that I should sign you.' And I was like, really? And so he got me my first agent, who's still my agent now."
Many stories of Williams' behind-the-scenes acts of kindness have come to light after his passing, so the fact he recommended Hawke unasked isn't too surprising. Knowing the context from Hawke's perspective, however, makes it all the more delightful.
Hawke spoke to Vanity Fair about his experience observing Williams and director Peter Weir interact on the Dead Poets Society set:
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“I’m watching [Weir] direct Robin Williams, not an easy thing to do, ’cause Robin was a comic genius," Hawke said. "But dramatic acting was still new to Robin at that time. And watching that relationship like, in the room—I was four feet away while they’re talking about performance—and that was something you don’t unsee.”
Williams taught Hawke that a script isn't always set in stone.
“Robin Williams didn’t do the script, and I didn’t know you could do that," Hawke recalled. "If he had an idea, he just did it. He didn’t ask permission. And that was a new door that was opened to my brain, that you could play like that. And Peter liked it, as long as we still achieved the same goals that the script had."
“They had a very different way of working, but they didn’t judge one another or resist one another,” Hawke continued. “They worked with each other. That’s exciting. That’s when you get at the stuff of what great collaboration can do. You don’t have to be the same, but you don’t have to hate somebody for being different than you are. And then the collective imagination can become very, very powerful, because the movie becomes bigger than one person’s point of view. It’s containing multiple perspectives.”
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The lessons Hawke learned from watching and working with Robin Williams have followed him through more than three decades in film. It’s delightful to see how Williams’ influence lives on in many small ways the world may not be aware of. His is an incredible legacy.