Robin Williams Once Almost Killed Danny DeVito
Despite their long careers as comedy superstars, Robin Williams and Danny DeVito only got to work together once, in the DeVito-directed Death to Smoochy. “Robin Williams is funnier than he's ever been in any movie he's ever done,” said DeVito while shilling for the film. How funny? The comedian was so hilarious that the director claims working with Williams nearly led to Death to DeVito.
Williams starred as “Rainbow” Randolph Smiley, a disgraced children’s television host who vows revenge on Edward Norton’s eponymous Smoochy, the lovable rhino character who replaces him. The comedy earned the title of Roger Ebert’s worst movie of the year for 2002: “Only enormously talented people could have made Death to Smoochy. Those with lesser gifts would have lacked the nerve to make a film so bad, so miscalculated, so lacking any connection with any possible audience.”
So the movie wasn’t a winner. But at least there was DeVito’s near-death experience. “I laughed my ass off with him,” remembered DeVito, as reported by Far Out. And one time, the laughter went too far. “He once almost killed me in a pool. I’m not a great swimmer, I was in the deep end and he was holding court, and I never laughed so hard — I swallowed a big gulp of water and choked for five minutes.”
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Like, literally choked. DeVito says someone had to rescue him from the pool when they finally noticed he couldn’t breathe. “Everybody was laughing at me,” he explained, although he can’t remember the actual Williams joke that nearly drowned him. “It was pretty good.”
DeVito marveled at WIlliams’ ability to hold court on virtually any subject. “He used to go off on rants. It could be airplanes, bicycles, anything. He was such a clown, and I loved him for that.”
While promoting Death to Smoochy, DeVito told the Chicago Tribune that he’s drawn to material that’s simultaneously hilarious and twisted. “I look at a script and wonder how I’m going to tell the story,” he said. “Maybe the only scripts I’m attracted to are the dark ones.”
Sounds like “laughing to death in the deep end of the pool” would be a perfect subject for a DeVito film.
