Robin Williams did not follow the script Dead Poets Society.
The late Hollywood star led the cast of the 1989 coming-of-age drama as English teacher John Keating, and Ethan Hawke – who was a teenager when he played student Todd Anderson – has recalled the challenges director Peter Weir faced when Williams was enamored with the idea of deviating from the script.
In a career retrospective interview with Vanity Fairsaid Ethan, “Robin is a comedic genius. But dramatic acting was still new to Robin at the time.”
“And to see that relationship like in the room – I was four meters away when they’re talking about performances – and it was something you can’t help but see. Robin Williams didn’t write the script, and I didn’t know you could do it. If he had an idea, he just did it. He didn’t ask permission. And it was a new door opened to my brain, so that you could explain, that you could explain it.
Ethan was particularly impressed by the way Robin – who took his own life in 2014 – and Weir collaborated despite their opposing working methods.
The 54-year-old star said: “They worked with each other. It’s exciting – that’s when you realize what great collaboration can do.”
“You don’t have to be the same – you don’t have to hate someone for being different than you are. And then the collective imagination can become very, very powerful because the film becomes bigger than one person’s point of view. It contains multiple perspectives,” Ethan concluded.
