Robin Williams - Parkinson interview [2002]

they'd arrived with mr. Tintin did you know mr. Clinton came on his own I think he did what about the prom the traveling now there's the airport security do you have it's a bit difficult now you know in the old days you used to be get on the plane come on get on the plane oh what's that one that's a gun okay good on the plane now it's hardcore you know it's basically they they take away everything from you first of all your if you're if you're in having meat on the plane you don't have a knife because that could be a weapon so it's like it's like the quest for fire flight I'm sorry sir and they take away things like nail clippers because that could be turned into weapon what do they think you're gonna be going over the cockpit door or the [ __ ] loses a hangnail come on you all right coach and I go you know I live in San Francisco so when you go through the metal detector there there's some pierced people there take out your keys out tip of the iceberg [Applause] no to the bizarre thing when you see a girl with a pierced tongue I asked his cousin why did you pierce your tongue and she said it increases the sexual stimulation that's alright my darling don't be afraid something simple but the security is tight now yes yeah it's a bizarre thing and we now have you know the Office of Homeland Security which is uh you know what's that well it's basically in America it's to all watch over and warn us when things bad are gonna happen because every so often Rumsfeld comes out and goes I don't know where I don't know when something Awful's going to happen today no for the question what is it the central intuitive agency a man wearing a shoe that hisses well they've learned so far is what the FBI can share with us is beware of people who take flight school under just didn't takeoff and landing number one number two anyone who gets on a on a shoe gets on a plane with a shoe that goes warning warning you over there and now people are wide awake on that used to be on the you know the the red-eye flight they would get on the plane take whatever medication they couldn't wake up and rush you're going this isn't Cleveland and now they're basically everyone's wide awake looking for anyone ordering hummus [Laughter] and they had they have your distinguished no racial profiling but they a little woman will come on a sweet little southern stewardess to go Lyceum before we get on flat five I just want to read off a list of names these are just these are random bag checks these are these are totally random I'm just gonna read off a list of names Hussam been seen poppin Beenleigh Judy Smith's fourteen Arabs and a blonde and every black man and every Hispanic man in the room was gone thank you God Maddy oh we know it's always a difficult thing cuz pilots are always you know the pilots used to come on that whole Chuck Yeager rap where they go hi everybody I've just had a few cocktails let's take this sucker down to the end of the runway and see what we'll do come on very loving and they go hey yeah I love all of you stewardess comes and goes in case of a cabin seizure a small Louisville Slugger will fall from the ceiling grab with both hands aim for the hit the assailants head knees and groin and keep hitting basically it's home defense just like you had doing well what do you mean dad's army yes all men with a colostomy bag and a pitchfork I captured Rudolf Hess personally I threw my colostomy bag and covered in SH I go get out of that [ __ ] and I'm talking about the plane step away god is it true is it true that Winston Churchill was sometimes so drunk that they had a guy from the BBC do some of his favorites really reported really that's one of the guy who did we need to poo on the beaches in the air on the land your and Tigger but God bless so you have you have Tony Blair now huh we do and your President Bush I love watching Bush watch Tony speak cuz he's gone I can't spell most of those you know some men are born great some achieve greatness some get it as a graduation gift okay he george ii the boy king no one realness let's now come to the purpose of love until now I think this Billy Connolly who held the record for talking longest without the question prompting it [Music] and I'm knowing that the two of your great friends I wonder who stopped talking first it's difficult to know you know once you get up there on there people playing dead cats you can't stop for me I get up there and it's wild because he's just he just goes you tell your stories out there dunya right once I get off the plane in Scotland I need subtitles that's how they can invent golf yeah they could have a couple of Guinness and then the next thing you know what here's my idea for a sport I knock a ball into a gopher hole I mean like to not forget to not want a straight stick a little broken stick I like a ball into a gopher hole oh you mean like croquet the whole hundreds of yards away [Applause] Oh kind of like a bowling alley oh do we taking away put stuff in the way like cheese and butchers go whack the ball and you're sitting there whacking away and you feel like you're gonna have a stroke that's what we'll call it because every time you hit the ball you think you're gonna die and right near the end I'll put a nice flat bit with a tiny flag to give you hope I'll put a pool and a sandbox to grab your ball you do this one time the question is the question well the first question middle of the interview the producers like and we know online what we don't figure in the door is do there'd be no corrida how did real occur I hope not my trance of hunting adventure perhaps or adventure weekend but they've been occurring like while kingdom really I took off the beeper collar just long enough to find John again [Applause] let the dogs out we'll find out now even Prince Charles is going it's alright we'll find out by Tuesday there's bill going but the question is yes yes the question is though this is one of a manic stand-up performer that go away this sort of extraordinary flow of laughter and then in the play in the familiar play now one-hour photo Uli's very silent man you're totally utterly bland yes and face this almost yeah that was the purpose to actually do the exact opposite of what you've just seen and your magic credibly well I think because I could do what I've just done and what I do on stage and have all of that energy and then let all of that go and be this man like you said who is almost faceless who's so bland that he lives vicariously to other people's photographs and that's why I did it to be in a movie that's kind of so unsettling because of that stillness I think and it takes people by surprise which is good it's very sinister film yeah in the end I'll talk about the ending of it but it's it's a it's a million levels it's not quite what you expect yeah it always takes strange turns where you think oh no he's that and you go oh no it's something else and even the very end which people think oh don't and then it takes another turn exactly yeah yeah it keeps you always going it takes you one way it always takes another turn which is good that's why I loved it when I read it and when I saw the videos Mark Romanek was a video director and I in videos he had done so many different things visually I when I've got to do this movie because it combines both the visuals and this great script I went this is you know really interesting work well in it then you play say it was a guy at the one hour photo yeah the man who basically sees the pictures of you know you and the thong not you nobody that's a lovely picture that is one of the chaps better it is that he basically develops people's pictures and he's been kind of fascinated with this one family very good like the InStyle poster family a beautiful family beautiful husband and wife child in a beautiful house everything that's a total opposite of what his life is and you know that's a fact he goes to a degree where he imagines that he's our uncle and he imagines they can walk into their house it is basically part of their family which is this sequence now it's about loneliness is about what he be remembered too isn't it that well the thing that there's a great line in the movie which says with family pictures it said someone cared enough about me to take my picture I exist and it's it's a moment in time a happy moment you know very few times you take pictures of Uncle Pete gone it's that moment where you really do especially when you look at all photographs most the time like when we're at the flea market in the movie would take all these old pictures and these are people who are gone there's a moment of them smiling in a moment just a brief captured moment very nostalgic aren't they yeah very bizarre we need to do a character bike like that and what you think you made about 40 movies no good will humping the adult versions of every movie you do yeah but well what's it what's the key to it to the part in in the sense that I mean you know job so much to say it's the walk some say see I think was the look I think when you said that kind of blendness to blend everything out started with the hair taking all color out of the hair making the face so bland and so neutral that literally one day I was walking through the story works in like a big Save Mart and I disappeared and then mark went that's what I want I want him to blend in so that outside of that store he's lost he's like you know he's a fish or a chameleon going what color do I become now and that's why he would fantasize about someone else's life also did it for me the shoes everyone a woman actually complimented me on my acting and said thank you but that was the sound man because the shoes have that kind of yeah is it a training on the small yeah it was the walk combined with you some small furry animal what are you doing it don't be afraid we're life [Laughter] [Applause] it's always strange but yeah that that was part of it to walk the look it all helps I think it's kind of inside and then the loneliness of a guy who's so isolated that even think that pictures are the way to achieve another life yeah I've never been that mean lonely in your childhood me lonely mm-hmm maybe I was an only child so yeah for a long time was just me and the puppet but it was you know it was a bit of a you know an unusual time people go is that why you're so hairy Romy it wasn't you know the isolated show it's a time delay thing where people go oh but it was you know that I could go back and use some of that as a sense memory of it talking about being being a Harry you once said you're too furry to be led I was actually hit on by Coco the gorilla who you you know she can sign and it was amazing because I they took me to meet her because it was part of this program to raise money for a new habitat so she signs to her trainer who's the blue-eyed simian then I went thank you and then she signs to her trainer to do this I go what is that she wants you to lift your shirt I lift my shirt and she pinches both my nipples and all of a sudden I'm going Wow Missy wants to play and then she grabs him by the hand and starts to take me in the back room and the trainer's going Coco and the trainer's going I can't help you and all of a sudden I think that's like the Crocodile Hunter is gonna walk out and go oh Danger Danger Danger she wants to bump uglies watch out boys and girls she's gonna do the bone dance be careful gonna be some interesting little babies this fall but it was interesting she hit on me she went she was like grooming me like it's hard when you when you have this much hair I've seen mosquitos take their own life this this humour come from this is somebody must have tried this your performance would be terrific yeah voluntary Tourette's what is it no like it is a bit like that I mean if there is that thing where I'll cross over the line sometimes obviously today I did but many you had that look like oh do stop will we be getting to the question soon but is that where you go off on things and you sometimes you get you'll see a moment you go oh oh and you'll just pursue it in it and it's like a little bit like possession and it's yeah it happens once in a while but was that the moment just comes there's nothing pre-planned ready you know like today there's actual yeah sequential oh it's actually more like a fractal but then we're getting even Stephen Hawking's going don't go there now call this house one day hello this is Stephen Hawking yes I'd like to leave a message no this is Stephen Hawking a then too you know you're kind of you know you jump start and go to different places usually from some weird synapse firing I watched your your last Broadway show oh yeah in July live on Broadway which has been recorded for HBO I mean that was there's a truly astonishing performance go throw me for two hours I mean you stand there I know no there's no script there's no problem there's nothing no you can't you don't tell long anecdotes either meets all quick fire stick yeah one thousand different people because that was always started off I start off in a club where it was you usually start off performing in bars where you can't really take the time because people go oh no don't usually people who own the club so I started to develop a style that was just very much like you know synaptic quickfire moving so they never really had a chance to lock you know lock on as a target and then it started to develop as being this kind of idea of taking an idea and going with it and then breaking away and that's been kind of a style it is extemporize to that extent that usually the first five minutes are like kind of getting especially with in different cities I would start off talking about the city and then go off from there but you said in research that your your influences were one or two were English comics oh yeah Peter Sellers amazingly really yeah I mean in terms of comic acting I think for me the best movie was doesn't get any better than dr.

Strangelove because here's you know you know all these distinct characters I mean but besides dr. Strangelove which is the the ultimate Henry Kissinger I never understood that movie till now hi mr.