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What Makes Robin Williams Irreplaceable As Mrs. Doubtfire
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Apr 29, 2025
Robin Williams portrayal of Mrs. Doubtfire is one of the best performances of his career. The premise alone could be that of nightmares, but Robin Williams brings a sense of humanity, joy, and warmth to Mrs. Doubtfire. Without Robin Williams this movie may not have been made, and Mrs. Doubtfire wouldn't be the cultural staple it is today.
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I'm a hip old granny who could hip hop, bebop, dance till you drop, and yo-yo make a wicked cup
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of cuckoo. This is Mrs. Doubtfire. It's a movie that should have never worked as well as it did
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The premise of a man impersonating a housekeeper in order to sneak into his ex-wife's home
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violate the terms of a custody agreement, and secretly spend more time with his kids
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is objectively terrifying. Yet Mrs. Doubtfire is still broadly looked back on as a beloved classic
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and we have the talent of one man to thank for it. Surprise
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The general movie-going audience fell in love with Mrs. Doubtfire. Or perhaps the more accurate statement is that the general movie-going audience
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fell in love with Robin Williams. Of course, you can't discount the work the rest of the cast and crew put into the project either
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Chris Columbus's directorial style made for a movie that felt close-knit and personal
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while still leaving room for plenty of pretty outlandish humor. It's a dinner show
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Hey, where are you from? Thank you, I'm going to make you lunch. Thank you very much. The rest of the cast is incredibly solid
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and the award-winning makeup and wardrobe department should also be recognized for all they did
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But even so, every bit of work that went into this movie was centered around the star actor
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Robin Williams played the main character, Daniel Hillard, with the same childlike whimsy that carried him
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through several of the biggest projects in his career. Hello! Ah! Oh, I'm sorry to frighten you, dear
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I must look like a yeti in this ghetto. But that specific brand of playfulness was especially necessary for his role in Mrs
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Doubtfire. It was a role which could have devolved into disturbing territory quite quickly
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Take, for example, the prank call sequence. It's one of the funniest bits in the movie, but it could have gone really wrong without
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Williams' stellar performance to ground it. Are your kids well behaved or do they need like a few light slams every now and then
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Um, I'll have to get back to you. The concept of a man obsessively calling his ex-wife
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and impersonating nanny prospects is creepy and obnoxious. Yet Williams made it fun to watch His talents for improvisation and impressions made the whole thing far more charming than it has any right to be on paper There are a lot of similarly difficult scenes
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that were made wholesome and hilarious purely because the star power of Robin Williams
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Some of them were so far out in left field that the production crew didn't even think they'd work
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The mugging is one such scene that, in the hands of a less skilled actor, could have felt way too
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over the top. But Williams' ability to seamlessly transition from scaring people on the street
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to daintily carrying a purse is just astonishing. He really embodied the character of Mrs. Doubtfire
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through both his vocal talent and his general physicality under all the hair and makeup effects
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What part of England are you from? Here and there, dear. All over, really
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Your accent's a little kind of muddled. Really? Well, so is your tan
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There's a softness in his eyes and a delicate slowness to his movements. It makes the
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the audience forget they aren't actually looking at a sweet elderly lady who just so happens to
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have the sense of humor of, well, Robin Williams. But it wasn't just Mrs. Doubtfire who was soft
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and sweet. Remember that Williams essentially played two characters in this movie, and the
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character of Daniel held his own as an eager, amiable father figure. There's an early scene
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in Mrs. Doubtfire where Daniel is picking his children up from school. Williams' gentle energy
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is on full display here, and it's immediately clear to the audience just from the way he smiles
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that these children are everything to him. He is a safe and loving person in their lives
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This was all intentional on the part of Williams and Columbus, the latter of which has specifically pointed to this scene
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as one of his favorite character moments in the film. The smile on Robin's face when he first sees the kids says it all for me
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These children are his life, his reason for being. And there's no doubt as to why
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It's difficult to imagine any other actor giving us the same warmth as Williams does here
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Altogether, the performance lent the movie a sort of heartwarming credibility. The story was
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believable and the character was likable largely because Robin Williams himself was believable and
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likable But his on performance is only half the story Williams mere presence on set was enough to make the movie that much more charming Five Mara Wilson who plays the part of Daniel youngest daughter Natalie
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spends most of the aforementioned after-school scene in Williams' arms while he banters with the two older children
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But there's an adorable moment between Daniel and Natalie where they hiss playfully at one another
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It's a great illustration of how close they are as father and daughter, and it was entirely unscripted
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Those little asides demonstrate just how comfortable these kids were with the way Williams presented himself both in front of the camera
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and just generally on set. But that trend didn't stop with the child performers
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By nature, Robin seemed to provide a place for actors to open up and really play
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Thankfully, Chris Columbus trusted him enough to help facilitate that environment too
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As such, some of the most memorable moments in Mrs. Doubtfire are the product of improvisation
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Thank you, this is the only two-piece suit that I ever wear. the camera work. Yeah? Sorry, I don't have one. The jet maker died. You sure now? No, no, really
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I think I would blind people with these white legs. Improvisation on the part of Williams
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yes, but especially on the part of the other actors playing off of Williams. Most of the
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dialogue between Daniel and his brother Frank is improv, as well as virtually everything that
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happens between Mrs. Doubtfire and the bus driver. And of course, the bit everyone remembers where
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Mrs. Doubtfire hides behind a mask of melting icing, was entirely improvised by Robin Williams
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while Anne Haney's Mrs. Sellner had to sit there as a comically stone-faced scene companion
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It's a true statement to what kind of man Robin Williams was when he was able to not only steal
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a scene with improvised jokes, but step back and give other actors the freedom and support
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necessary to do the same. That's not something many actors can claim to be capable of
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and Mrs. Doubtfire as a whole is better for it. Look at this! My first day as a woman, I'm getting hot flashes
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Those small moments in bits of dialogue from characters like Natalie, Frank, and Mrs. Selner
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made the movie feel genuine. It reminded the audience that the secondary characters
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were more than just springboards for Williams jokes That additional bit of humanity helps to drive the emotional core of the movie home And it was Robin not as a performer but a person who helped the actors feel comfortable
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enough to make those choices. The culmination of all of this comes in the form of a scene
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a little over halfway into the movie. The titular Mrs. Doubtfire and Daniel's ex-wife
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Sally Fields' Miranda Hillard, have a conversation in the family's kitchen. It starts out innocent
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enough before segueing into some of the most brilliant improv of the movie. Williams delivers
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several great jokes about Mrs. Doubtfire's late husband, and Sally Field plays off of him perfectly
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It was a drink that killed him. How awful, he was an alcoholic. No, he was hit by a Guinness truck
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All the while, Williams maintains the physicality of Mrs. Doubtfire with ease, allowing for only one
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intentional slip of the persona after a damning comment from Miranda. Who needs a husband when
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I've got you? Surely you don't mean that, dear. Well, that's so sweet. It's playful and
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and fun in that way only Robin Williams could produce. But while the audience is laughing
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the movie slips into genuine sincerity. They address why Miranda was unhappy in her marriage to Daniel
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and for the first time, he understands that divorce is really the best option for the two of them
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I didn't like who I was when I was with him. I would turn into this horrible person. I didn't want my kids growing up with a mother like that
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You can see that Daniel is struggling to maintain Mrs. Doubtfire's pleasantly neutral expression
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while he grapples with the reality that the woman he was married to used to cry herself to sleep at night
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It's a heartbreaking and beautiful moment that Williams really hits the emotionality of
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But it's cushioned by those improvised jokes that made the audience feel as comfortable
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in the scene as the actors felt with Robin on set. It made the scene, and indeed the whole movie
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a joy to watch. And he is the reason for all of it. We may never see an actor like Robin Williams again
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The man was truly one of a kind, and there is perhaps no better example of that fact
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than his role in this movie. With a different actor at the wheel, Mrs. Doubtfire could have come off as a hateful horror show
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But the sheer talent and authentically delightful nature of Robin Williams made it into a classic fit for the whole family
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