“Mrs. Doubtfire” Director Reveals R-Rated Cut Thanks To Robin Williams

Even though legendary actor Robin Williams has passed away, it seems like we could be getting some new material from him sometime soon. Chris Columbus, director of Mrs. Doubtfire, recently revealed that there is plenty of R-rated material thanks to Robin Williams’ raunchy improvised takes. Speculation about extra footage from the 1993 comedy began to circulate a while back when a viral Tweet claimed that there were multiple versions of the film, including PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. 

chris columbus
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Columbus said that while this really isn’t true, he and Williams would often do many different takes on set that resulted in some inappropriate and humorous content. “The reality is that there was a deal between Robin and myself, which was, he’ll do one or two, three scripted takes,” he explained. “And then he would say, ‘Then let me play.’ And we would basically go on anywhere between 15 to 22 takes, I think 22 being the most I remember.”

The filmmaker continued, “He would sometimes go into territory that wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG-13 movie, but certainly appropriate and hilariously funny for an R-rated film. I only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie.” 

Robin Williams
Scott Gries/Getty Images

Columbus also said that with all the extra material, he likely has ‘three or four’ versions of the film. “I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version,” he said. Hopefully, someday we’ll be able to see these re-edited scenes. 

[Via]