How Christopher Walken Blocked Robin Williams From His Darkest Roles
Robin Williams longed to break away from his comedic image and take on darker, more sinister roles. Yet, time and again, he was passed over in favor of actors like Christopher Walken. Years later, Williams finally got his shot—and stunned audiences with his chilling performances.
Robin Williams was a Hollywood powerhouse, known for his unmistakable energy and one-of-a-kind comedic style. Scripts were often crafted with him in mind, or rewritten to fit his unique approach once he signed on. But while he was a natural in comedy, Williams also had a real knack for drama. Even in his more serious films, you could catch glimpses of his quick wit, but he was just as capable of delivering a performance with zero improvisation. Directors like George Roy Hill on The World According to Garp kept him strictly to the script, and when he worked with Christopher Nolan on Insomnia, he didn’t feel the need to ad-lib at all. That film was part of what Williams called his ‘Triptych of Evil,’ but it took years before he was finally trusted with such roles.
Typecast by Success
Throughout the early ‘90s, Williams followed a pattern: one project for himself, one for the studios. He leaned into his familiar persona in movies like Hook, Aladdin, Toys, and Mrs. Doubtfire, but also stretched his dramatic muscles in The Fisher King and Awakenings. Still, he grew weary of playing the lovable goofball or the wisecracking lead. Whenever he tried to land a role that was a total departure, someone else always seemed to get the call first.
“I want to play something nasty,”
he told The Independent in 1994.
“But no one thinks of me when they want a psychotic guy; Chris Walken gets all those scripts.”
Walken, of course, had a reputation for playing unhinged characters, and even he admitted that being typecast as the ‘crazy guy’ wore on him. Those were exactly the kinds of roles Williams craved, but his success in comedy made casting directors hesitant to take a chance.
Waiting for a Darker Turn
Williams was so eager for a more challenging part that he even considered stepping away from Hollywood for a while. He didn’t go through with it, but the wait dragged on.
“If worst comes to worst, I’ll go back on the road and be a stand-up comic, that’s got me through the bad periods before,”
he said.
“Part therapy, but also, you know, cash. To wait for a role that isn’t necessarily the sweet, likeable guy, that’s a hard call sometimes. They’ll always offer lots of money for certain things, but you can get creamed that way.”
The only time he got to show his darker side before the 2000s was in 1996, when he appeared uncredited in The Secret Agent. It was a small taste of what he’d been waiting for, but it would be years before he’d get a real shot.
Finally Breaking Through
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that Williams finally landed the kind of roles he’d been chasing. With films like One Hour Photo, Insomnia, and Death to Smoochy, he proved he could deliver chilling, unforgettable performances. Looking back, it’s clear he should have been given the chance much sooner.