Featured Image Credit: Miramax / Harry Langdon via Getty Images
Topics: Robin Williams, Film and TV, Celebrity
Michael Slavin
Topics: Robin Williams, Film and TV, Celebrity
Ten years on from Robin Williams’ tragic death, it doesn’t get any easier seeing scenes of the late great actor and comedian.
Williams committed suicide in 2014 at the age of 63, and would’ve turned 73 yesterday, July 21.
In his career the comedian starred in a number of movies, so everyone would give different answers when asked what they think of when they think of him.
Some may say Jumanji, some would say Mrs Doubtfire, and for understandable reasons – many would say Dead Poets Society.
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Me personally though? When I see Robin Williams, I think of Good Will Hunting.
Matt Damon, Minnie Driver, and Ben Affleck all kill their roles in the film, but Williams’ performance is iconic.
Winning an Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for the role, he kills it as the therapist who finally gets through to Damon’s Will.
The actor has several iconic scenes in the film, whether it be talking to Will about how he missed rushing the field at Game 6 of the Cubs 1975 world series because he had to ‘see about a girl’, or when he finally breaks through to him.
One of the most iconic, however, is when he’s telling Will about his wife and all her small idiosyncrasies he loves, specifically that she would always fart in her sleep.
The scene is quite well known for having been improvised by Williams, something obvious from Matt Damon’s laughter.
In a post on X in honour of his birthday yesterday, however, fans noticed one specific detail from the scene.
James Lucas posted a thread on X ‘to brighten your day’, the first post of which was the scene.
He posted it with the caption: “His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.”
When watching the scene back you can see that not only is Damon’s reaction authentic, but the camera does indeed begin to shake as he tells the story. Take a look:
One fan replied saying: "I can’t help but be moved," whilst another said: “He was absolutely the best. I still miss the guy - the stuff he'd say was so good.”
This wasn’t even the only iconic line which Williams improvised.
It was also revealed in a post on the subreddit r/TodayILearned that the final line of the film, where Williams’s character says ‘son of a b*tch stole my line’, was also improvised.
It seems like if you’re just as naturally funny as Williams was, a script will never be as funny as he is.