Christopher Nolan Had No Patience for Wisecracking Robin Williams

Robin Williams’ performance as the antagonist in Christopher Nolan’s harrowing Insomnia earned the comedian some of the best reviews of his career. “Williams reminds us that he is a considerable dramatic talent,” wrote Roger Ebert. Slate’s David Edelstein called his performance “shockingly effective,” while Empire said, “Williams delivers his best straight performance yet.”

But you can’t expect a guy like Williams to keep a straight face for long. Between takes, the fast-riffing comedian broke into his usual antics, bouncing off the walls and entertaining the tech folks with improvised characters and celebrity impressions. But one guy on set wished Williams would have given it a rest. That’s director Nolan, who was trying to create a moody murder mystery while Williams was telling penis jokes. 

“He was very much Robin Williams,” Nolan told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “He likes to perform. He could see I wasn’t receptive to his comedy between takes, but he was always entertaining the crew.”  

It’s not like Nolan doesn’t have a sense of humor — in fact, he’s got a pretty low-brow sensibility. According to Far Out, Nolan is a fan of Saturday Night Live’s MacGruber (Anne Hathaway says he could quote lines from the movie) and Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. 

But Nolan apparently likes his comedy in a theater, not while he’s trying to set up his next shot. The good news for both director and actor: The irritating jokes didn’t affect the performance. Williams would be goofing around “then ‘I’d say ‘action,’ and he’d just go right into what he was doing,” Nolan said. “I’ve seen his performance many times, and it’s scarily real. There are moments when you don’t think he was acting at all.”

Maybe part of Williams’ need to let loose was due to the film’s shooting locations in tiny Alaskan towns. According to the biography Robin, Williams found the setting lonesome and lacking in stimulation — there was “a lot of log rolling” and “a couple of bars,” and little else. For entertainment, he took part in a local custom in which a fiery bartender took matches to powerful shots of grain alcohol. “We had these wild parties in Alaska where they ‘Hyderize’ you there, which is 175 to 180 proof,” Williams said. “Do the math, that’s a lot of alcohol.”

Basically, Williams’ only sober outlet for fun was between takes on the Insomnia set. It bugged Nolan, but he couldn’t complain about the final result on screen. Williams “is an incredible talent,” the director said. “It was so interesting to watch these two actors (Williams and Al Pacino) who come from such different approaches and energy.”

When you cast Robin Williams, you had to know the guy would hitch up his pants and joke about Mr. Happy now and again. Considering the performance Williams gave, Nolan would agree it was worth the compromise.