Robin Williams Did Oscar-Winning Work In Good Will Hunting, But The Director Said There Was One ‘Problem’ With The Way He Worked
When thinking of the best ‘90s movies, it would be hard not to acknowledge the 1997 drama Good Will Hunting. Given its status, it’s no surprise director Gus Van Sant is still reflecting on working with Robin Williams, one of the film’s stars, who kept people laughing on set, by the way. There was just one problem.
In an interview with THR, Van Sant discussed his time working with Williams on the film and what he considered the actor's one "problem."
Robin had a lot of ideas. His only problem was he wanted to do a lot of takes — a slow one, a fast one, a funny one, a funny fast one, a funny slow one. … He knew that in the editing, they need that kind of stuff. But if I get a good take, I try to stop. He'd get me up to seven or eight just by begging, 'Please, please? One more? One more?'
The film starred Williams as Sean Maguire, a therapist who treats Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a secret math genius who works at MIT as a janitor. The film showcased Williams’ range as an actor and includes the inspiring movie speech given to Damon's character that people still talk about today. If you're looking to rewatch this moment, the film can be streamed with a Max subscription.
Upon its release, the film garnered Williams' fourth Oscar nomination and first win for Best Supporting Actor at the 1998 awards show. It also catapulted Damon and Ben Affleck, his costar and co-writer on the project, to stardom and nabbed them their first Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay. Van Sant was also nominated in the Best Director Category.
The director went on to say that the film's set was particularly loud because Robin Williams "was just cracking jokes." Van Sant also reacted to the actor calling him “the mellowest man in Hollywood,” a characterization the director doesn’t agree with.
I don’t think I’m mellow. I’m just thinking, silently working and figuring out what’s going on in a scene.
Williams, who died in 2014, seemed to share a similar fondness for the director and said as much in a Sirius XM interview with fellow Oscar winner and friend Whoopi Goldberg.
And working with Gus Van Sant, he's the greatest. He’s so good. He gets you to the point where you don't realize you're acting. You stop acting, and you just talk.
Van Sant isn’t the only Good Will Hunting alum who has discussed working with the late Robin Williams. Affleck once described him as “warm and lovely” to CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend.
Despite the film’s great success, it doesn’t seem like a sequel is anywhere on the horizon as Affleck shot down those rumors at the premiere of his 2023 film Air, a film about Nike where Affleck got to direct Damon. So, while it might not be set in the Good Will Hunting universe, the two continue to work together.
