An R-Rated Version of 'Mrs. Doubtfire' Exists Somewhere Thanks To Robin Williams
Just days following the highly-anticipated release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, a film famously preluded by widespread calls for Warner Bros. to #ReleaseThe SnyderCut, moviegoers have seemingly moved on from the DC multiverse's latest installment to a secret version of yet another film worthy of moving from the annals of the cutting room floor, to a cinema (or, well, more likely a Hulu account) near us – a raunchy, R-Rated take on Robin Williams' 1993 classic, Mrs. Doubtfire.
Last week, a tidbit from a 2015 Yahoo! Entertainment interview with the film's director Chris Columbus, in which he alleges there are four versions of the film with various ratings, went viral, after a popular movie trivia Twitter page reposted the quip alongside a snap of Williams in full Doubtfire drag. Due to the actor's improv skills and comedic expertise, there were “literally, a PG rated version of the film, PG-13, R, and NC-17," Columbus elaborated in the interview, where he says Williams is “without a doubt, the best actor I’ve worked with.”
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Shortly after the trivia post went viral, which quickly garnered more than 25,000 likes, fans began calling to see the dirtiest version of Mrs. Doubtfire, begging …
… and pleading …
… and begging some more …
… for an NC-17 cut of the family-friendly film to hit the big screen. Yet as calls mounted to see an extremely raunchy take on the Robin Williams' classic, Columbus stepped in, issuing a clarification that he may have exaggerated with his initial statement. "The reality is that there was a deal between Robin and myself, which was, he'll do one or two, three scripted takes. And then he would say, 'Then let me play.' And we would basically go on anywhere between 15 to 22 takes, I think 22 being the most I remember," the director recently told Entertainment Weekly. Even with Williams' dirtiest jokes and raunchy improvisation, Columbus asserts that none of the “three or four versions of the film" would not exceed an R-rating.
"He would sometimes go into territory that wouldn't be appropriate for a PG-13 movie, but certainly appropriate and hilariously funny for an R-rated film. I only used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie," the director explained.
Mara Wilson, the actress who starred as Williams' young daughter in the classic flick (along with several other iconic '90s roles), also chimed in on the potential existence of an NC-17 cut, noting that Williams always made sure to keep the R-Rated jokes far away from her impressionable mind.
“He didn't say any of the blue stuff around me, but I know he said it,” Wilson, a former Cracked contributor, wrote on Twitter over the weekend. “I wouldn't be surprised if there was material for an R rating. NC-17? No way.”
Although it seems fans will likely never get the wildly explicit version of the film once promised, we may still be able to catch a glimpse of the family classic in its profanity-laden form through a theoretical documentary. "I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version," Columbus noted. "The problem is, I don't recall most of it. I only know what's in the movie at this point because it's been a long time. But I do remember it was outrageously funny material."
So folks, while an NC-17 cut of Mrs. Doubtfire may be out of the question, it seems there's still hope at getting a hilariously grown-up version of our favorite childhood film. #ReleaseTheRRatedDoubtfireCut?
For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram at @HuntressThompson_, on Twitch.tv @HuntressThompson_ and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
