Robin Williams’ Wildest Film Set: Chaos, Cash Woes and Mayhem
Robin Williams called his early role in Popeye a 'crazy-ass movie', recalling a production so wild that the cast was often stoned and the studio nearly ran out of cash before the end.
There are moments in any job where you pause and wonder, ‘How did I end up here?’ For most of us, it’s a fleeting thought. But for Robin Williams, working in comedy meant those moments came thick and fast. His career was built on embracing the absurd, but even he had his limits.
Williams’ time on set often veered into the ridiculous. Whether donning prosthetics for Mrs Doubtfire or pretending to fly as Peter Pan, he was no stranger to feeling a bit silly. Acting opposite invisible creatures in Jumanji or Flubber, he had to keep a straight face while talking to thin air. Still, nothing quite prepared him for the madness of his breakout role.
Filming Popeye: A Recipe for Bedlam
Landing the part of the oddball sailor in Popeye, Williams found himself in a world that made little sense. The idea of him playing the cartoonish lead alongside Shelley Duvall was already a stretch. But the real chaos began when the production started to unravel.
As Williams put it,
‘Crazy-ass movie,’
and that barely scratched the surface. The shoot was plagued by problems, and as the end neared, the studio’s funds dried up. Williams remembered,
‘Literally, near the end of the movie … the studio had pooled all of the money, so all the special effects people left. It was Ed Wood the last weeks of the movie.’
The comparison to Ed Wood’s infamous decline painted a clear picture of the shambles on set.
Stoned Cast and Studio Mayhem
It wasn’t just the budget that spiralled out of control. According to Barry Diller, who ran Paramount Pictures at the time,
‘You couldn’t escape it,’
referring to the ever-present drugs. He called it the
‘most coked-up’
production he’d ever witnessed, adding,
‘Film cans were actually being used to ship cocaine back and forth to this set. Everyone was stoned.’
With the cast and crew in such a state, it’s a wonder anything got finished. The pressure to keep things moving as the production teetered on the edge must have been immense. Yet, somehow, they muddled through, even as the situation became more farcical by the day.
Improvising the Ending Amidst the Madness
One of the most bizarre moments came during the film’s climax. Shelley Duvall found herself in a pond, wrestling with an octopus prop that barely worked. Williams recalled,
‘Shelley Duvall was in a pond, basically, with an octopus with no internal mechanism, having to drape it over her body like a feather boa. I’m in the water, and I’m kind of like sitting there.’
As the chaos peaked, producer Robert Evans wandered about, desperate for a way to wrap things up. Williams joked,
‘We could walk on the water like Jesus.’
Evans seized on the idea, declaring,
‘That’s the way! That’s how we’ll end the movie!’
It was a fittingly absurd finish to a production that had gone completely off the rails.
With a mix of drugs, wild ideas and a knack for rolling with the punches, Williams survived his most chaotic film set. It was a wild ride he’d never forget.