  As Reverend Frank in License To Wed, Robin Williams keeps the mania to a minimum while still coming off as a mischief-maker.
|
LOS ANGELES -- For once, Robin Williams wanted to keep the genie in the bottle.
"We didn't want him to be Aladdin in a priest's outfit," says License to Wed director Ken Kwapis of the comic actor's turn as a minister who puts an engaged couple (John Krasinski and Mandy Moore) through a ludicrously intense marriage-prep course.
"The part really calls for a certain level of anarchy, someone ... to be a mischief-maker, but he's also a reverend, so all of that has to work within certain parameters. It was a great challenge working with Robin, who has this natural resource in his improvisational abilities."
For Williams, License to Wed, which opens in Canada on Friday, marks the actor's second broad, commercial comedy in as many years, after RV (and not including his supporting stint in Night at the Museum). These, in turn, follow such darker, introspective projects as The Night Listener, Insomnia and One Hour Photo.
"It's like Sophie's Choice -- pick a baby," Williams says of straddling the dramatic and comedic realms.
"I like the idea of doing this, a comedy with really fun people. I like doing stand-up -- with all the things going on (in the world), just to find some perspective and to find a way that addresses the craziness from both sides. The dramas, for me, allow me to explore more behavioural, deeper psychological kinds of things."
He continues, "For me, at the age of 55, I'm a character actor. The idea of an older furry love interest, unless you're doing Gorillas in the Mist: The Musical (isn't going to happen). I just want to keep working ...
"It's hard to find (a comedy) where I can go off as much as I do with stand-up."
Eventually the subject turns to religion and, specifically, why his License to Wed reverend has a young boy as his sidekick. Given current events, was that a wise choice?
"That's why he's a Protestant," Williams says. "If you had a Catholic priest with a small boy, already they're going, 'What's up?' It has been a difficult thing for the Catholic Church to deal with all these years, when they had the divine witness protection program ...
"It might be something to look at for the Catholic Church, losing the whole celibacy thing. First you have to give up sex, (but then they put) you in a small box and every week people are going to come and go, 'Bless me father for I have sinned.' 'What have you done my son?' 'Last night I was with twins in a slip and slide.' 'Oh, really? Keep going.' And then they're going to take you from that and put you next to pubescent children." (Williams was raised Protestant, or as he calls it "Catholic-lite. I grew in the Episcopal church, which is there is no purgatory, just spiritual escrow.")
Williams, who has been married 18 years to his second wife, is uncharacteristically at a loss when asked to espouse his own relationship advice.
"Really getting to know a woman is a lifelong task. I can't imagine polygamy -- to have two or three women pissed at me."
More Artists
