MRS. DOUBTFIRE Director Says Robin Williams Improvised So Much He Had 2 Million Feet of Film and Nearly 1,000 Boxes of Outtakes

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams he was known for his incredibly long takes on any film set, especially those in his comedic roles, as he was prone to improvising these hilariously long-winded tangents that could throw the cast and crew off, but could also lead things astray. Mrs. Doubt director Chris Colombo can attest to these shenanigans, as he remembered working with the late, great actor at the film’s 30th anniversary celebration this month. In a new interview with Business Insider, Columbus revealed that 2 million feet of film was shot during the making of the 1993 comedy because Williams improvised so much dialogue.

The film is home to one of Williams’ most classic characters. She plays a recently divorced actor who disguises himself as an elderly housekeeper so he can continue to see her children.

Columbus remembered:

“Early on in the process, he said to me, ‘Hey boss, the way I like to work, if you’re up for it, is I’ll give you three or four scripted takes and then we play. By saying this she meant that he wanted to improvise. And that’s exactly how we shot every scene. We would get exactly what was written, and then Robin would leave and it was something to see.

He continued:

“The poor script supervisor. Remember, this was the early ’90s, she wasn’t writing what he was saying. She was writing it by hand and Robin would change every take. So Robin would go to a place where she couldn’t remember much of what she said. We would go to the script supervisor and ask her and sometimes she wouldn’t even understand everything. She often literally gave us a completely different vision than what we did with the written takes.

Columbus said that on “several occasions” Williams improvised so much dialogue that he used up all the film loaded in the camera.

“It got to the point where I had to shoot the entire film with four cameras to keep up with it. None of us knew what he was going to say once we started, so I wanted the camera to focus on the other actors to capture their reactions…[the studio was] loving what they were seeing. Did they watch everything? I do not believe. We shot almost 2 million feet of film on that photo.

Considering the enormous amount of film shot during production Mrs. Doubt, it may not come as much of a shock to learn that Columbus still has over 900 boxes full of footage that includes outtakes and never-before-seen clips from behind the scenes of the play. He told Business Insider that he hopes to turn all this footage into a documentary.

“There are about 972 boxes of footage from ‘Doubtfire’ – footage we used in the movie, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage – in a warehouse somewhere and we’d like to hire an editor to come in and look at all that footage. We want to show Robin’s process. There’s something special and magical about the way he did his job and I think it would be fun to delve into that. I mean, there’s 2 million feet of film in that warehouse, so there might be something we can do with all that.”

I bet the footage would be amazing to watch! They should make a documentary with Williams outtakes. I would definitely watch it! Mrs. Doubt is available to stream on Disney+.