As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, Hasitha Fernando delves into the story behind the comedy classic Mrs. Doubtfire…
Many have found solace and happiness through Robin Williams’ efforts. Over the years the gifted performer have captivated audiences the world over through his soulful performances and artful comedy. Mrs. Doubtfire was one of the movies that struck a chord with viewers back in 1993, a time when they were too busy being awed or terrified by the dinos of Jurassic Park.
That a heart-warming comedy drama could wriggle its way into the box-office to become the second highest grossing film of that year, behind Steven Spielberg’s gargantuan sci-fi epic, was testament to what Robin Williams could accomplish as an actor. And so, on its 30th anniversary we take a look at what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of this beloved tale that well all love and cherish…
The film was based on a similarly titled book
Many maybe unaware that Mrs. Doubtfire was actually based on a book titled Madame Doubtfire (it was known as Alias Madame Doubtfire in the US) written by English author Anne Fine. The novel, published in 1987, was fairly well received by the readership in UK even going so far as to be shortlisted for several national literary awards like the Whitebread Children’s Book award and Guardian Children’s Fiction prize. The writer based the name of her novel on a 1970s-era second-hand store, “Madame Doubtfire,” located at the corner of Howe Street and South East Circus Place in Edinburgh. The shop owner had named the shop after her first husband – Arthur Cyril Doubtfire.
The book’s adaptation was by a rookie screenwriter
Randy Mayem Singer was a political science major pursuing a career in broadcast journalism when she landed the gig for Mrs. Doubtfire. While working at Los Angeles radio station KFI, Singer took a screenwriting course at UCLA and began penning her first screenplay – a romantic comedy named A 22¢ Romance. That script nabbed the inaugural UCLA Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award for 1987 – a competition judged by such Hollywood icons as Steven Spielberg, James L. Brooks and Robert Zemeckis – and eventually got sold to Orion Pictures following a bidding war. It was due to the buzz generated from that script, that 20th Century Fox tapped Singer to write the screen adaptation of Anne Fine’s novel.
Chris Columbus’ career was terrified to meet Robin Williams
Chris Columbus was already a well-recognized talent in the industry when he decided to helm Mrs. Doubtfire. As a filmmaker he had bona fide hits such as Home Alone and Home Alone 2 under his belt and as a screenwriter he had churned out scripts for such classics as Gremlins and The Goonies. Columbus was a huge fan of Robin Williams, religiously following his stand-up comedy skits but it was with his thoroughly engrossing performance in Good Morning, Vietnam that the director decided he must somehow work with this gifted actor.
The opportunity presented itself a few years down the line following Home Alone’s release, when he was approached by 20th Century Fox regarding a script called Alias Madame Doubtfire, a project to which Williams was apparently attached. Columbus jumped at the opportunity but when the producers wanted him to meet the star in person the director was terrified and nervous, since he was in complete awe of Williams’ talent.
It took five hours of makeup to get into character
The whole process of becoming Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire took four-and-a-half to five hours in the makeup chair. This was quite the ordeal for Williams who had to wake up at 3am in the morning and go through the who arduous process, just so he could be ready for shooting by 8am. To sidestep this inconvenience, Columbus and company avoided filming scenes with Mrs. Doubtfire’s character two days in a row, and instead shot scenes that had Daniel in them alternatively.
To test the effectivity of his disguise, Williams used to randomly stroll outside in full make up and costume as Mrs. Doubtfire, through his hometown of San Francisco to see if anyone recognized him. He even visited a sex toy shop to buy a large dildo, much to the amusement of the shopkeeper and film crew.
The brilliant makeup and special effects can be attributed to the insanely talented Greg Cannom, who lends his skills to such classics as Batman Returns, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Titanic and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. For his contributions Cannom has gone on to win four Oscar awards for Best Achievement in Makeup over the years and even received a Technical Achievement Award for developing a specially modified silicone material for makeup applications used in motion pictures.
Robin Williams improvised a helluva lot for this role
This one shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as Robin Williams was quite famous for deviating from the script, often adding elaborate improvisations to every performance he embodied. As someone who had honed his comedic skills doing stand-up, this was something natural for the performer. However, this sometimes complicated the shoot as the production crew ran out of film on several occasions trying to capture everything Williams did on film. But since they didn’t want to miss anything, the crew rigged four cameras when shooting, just to keep up with the guy.
None of them knew what Williams was going to say or do when he was fully immersed in character, so the filmmaker even kept a camera focused on the other actors just to record their reactions to the improvisations. During a recent interview with Business Insider Columbus revealed that there are 972 boxes of footage – which contained over 200 million feet of film – of the shoot in storage which he one day intends to make a documentary of, highlighting Williams’s singular talent and creative process.
The flick helped Pierce Brosnan with a particular role
The dashing Pierce Brosnan played the love interest of Sally Field’s Miranda in Mrs. Doubtfire, something that didn’t sit well with Robin Williams’ Daniel in the movie. Because of this Daniel makes innumerable hilarious attempts at sabotaging the relationship in his alter-ego’s guise.
In the late 80s Brosnan was experiencing a career high with NBC’s Remington Steele and was one of the top choices eyed to take over the mantle of James Bond, during the show’s brief hiatus, after Roger Moore. However, this decision was reversed by NBC later on and Brosnan lost the role to Timothy Dalton. After Dalton’s rather short stint as Bond came to a halt, Eon Productions were once again on the lookout for a future 007 and contacted Columbus for more info. The director immediately recommended Brosnan for the iconic role, and two years later he made his debut as James Bond in 1995’s GoldenEye.
A sequel to Mrs. Doubtfire almost happened
In the wake of Mrs. Doubtfire’s success there were constant rumors swirling around Hollywood on whether or not a sequel would ever happen. At one point comedy actor Bonnie Hunt who starred alongside Robin Williams in 1995’s Jumanji was on board to write the script, but this iteration didn’t reach fruition. In 2014 things started moving with Elf writer David Berenbaum having a crack at drafting a script.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly Columbus revealed that, “We said for many years that we would never do it. Then someone came up with a really interesting idea and we agreed to develop a script.” Columbus even had a discussion with Williams to get his thoughts on the matter, but the actor wasn’t too keen on being under layers of makeup to portray Mrs. Doubtfire again. And with his tragic passing that same year, all notions of a sequel simply ended.
Box office success, audience praise and awards glory
The film grossed $441.3 million on a $25 million budget, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1993 behind the box-office juggernaut Jurassic Park. It was 20th Century Fox’s highest grossing movie internationally at that time. Judging by the box-office performance of the flick it’s easy to assume that audiences the world over loved what they saw, but the critics were somewhat divided in their opinion of Mrs. Doubtfire.
Its reception and popularity have since improved considerably, being placed 67th in the American Film Institute’s “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs” list and 40th on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies of All Time” list. Mrs. Doubtfire ended up having quite a decent run come awards seasons, winning the Oscar for Best Makeup and the Golden Globe awards for Best Actor and Best Picture respectively. Robin Williams’s untimely demise left a void that no amount of talent or humor in the world could possibly fill.
A consummate artist who was dead set on making the world a better place through laughter, his incomparable legacy will continue to live on in the films and TV shows he crafted, and Mrs. Doubtfire was one such effort.
What are your thoughts and memories of Mrs. Doubtfire? Let us know on our socials @FlickeringMyth…
Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
