How Casting Batman Almost Destroyed Robin Williams' Friendship With Jack Nicholson
After decades as one of the most respected and famous actors in the world, Jack Nicholson has adopted a reclusive lifestyle over the last several years. Since Nicholson has been out of the spotlight for so long, it can be easy to forget how much the movie studios used to want to work with him.
At one point, there was so much desire to have Nicholson star in the DC Comics movie Batman that the studio used Robin Williams against him. After Williams realized that he'd been used, that easily could have ended his friendship with Nicholson.
How Was Robin Williams Used To Get Jack Nicholson To Star In Batman?
When Warner Bros. was making plans to make a Batman movie during the '80s, they had to find the perfect actor to play The Joker. From all accounts, the studio and filmmakers always had their eye on Jack Nicholson for the role, but he didn't want to commit to the project.
Unlike Nicholson, there was another famous actor who was more than willing to sign a deal to play The Joker, Robin Williams. After Nicholson continued to waffle about whether he'd portray The Joker, Warner Bros. offered the role to Williams who quickly agreed.
Unfortunately for Williams, the people behind Batman's production still had other things in mind. Since they still wanted Nicholson to portray The Joker, they weren't actually committed to Williams. Instead, they used the information that Williams had been cast as a pawn to get Nicholson to make a decision and take the role.
As soon as Nicholson agreed to the role, Warner Bros. showed Williams the door. Worse yet, it was revealed that Warner Bros. agreed to an incredible deal with Nicholson that gave him a portion of the movie's profits and limited how much time he had to be on set.
According to Screen Rant, Williams felt betrayed by the turn of events. "Williams was understandably furious about Warner Bros.' duplicity, and demanded an apology from the studio before he would agree to work with them again."
While Screen Rant doesn't have a citation for that claim, it is easy to believe that Williams would demand an apology. After all, it was widely reported that Williams once demanded someone from Disney publicly apologize to him and got his wishes.
Were Jack Nicholson And Robin Williams Friends?
By the time Jack Nicholson pretty much walked away from Hollywood, he'd been a movie star for decades. After first rising to fame during the 60s, Nicholson remained a huge deal in the business until the 2000s.
Given how long Nicholson was in the spotlight, you'd probably think that fans would know a lot about his personal life. In reality, however, very little is known about the person Nicholson was when he wasn't on movie sets or at awards shows.
For the most part, the only thing that most Nicholson fans know about his personal life is some of the stars he dated. Even in those cases, almost everything that is known about Nicholson's love life was learned from the paparazzi seeing him with ladies or the women he dated talking about him.
Similarly, when it comes to the Hollywood friendships that Nicholson had over the years, he wasn't going around talking about his pals. Instead, fans mostly learned about who Nicholson's pals were because they told stories about the A-lister in public.
Since Nicholson rose to fame at a time when stars tried to keep fans at an arm's length, it makes sense he wasn't going around talking about being friends with Robin Williams.
Just like Nicholson, Williams wasn't the kind of star to go around bragging about having famous friends. Instead, Williams often expressed that someone was his friend by impersonating them or telling humorous stories during interviews.
Based on some of the times that Williams spoke about his interactions with Nicholson, his feeling about the Batman star seems pretty clear. First off, Williams seemed to enjoy joking about Nicholson's unique personality. On top of that, Williams talked about Nicholson in a way that revealed the two actors had a friendly relationship at the very least.
In 2011, Williams made an appearance on The Graham Norton Show and talked about when he won an Oscar in the late-'90s. Since Nicholson won an Oscar the same night, the two actors talked backstage. Based on what Williams says Nicholson remarked to him that night, the two actors shared a bond. More than that, Nicholson even had a nickname for Williams.
Before Nicholson won an Oscar the same night Williams did, he'd previously taken home one in the '70s and '80s. When the two men were backstage with their Oscars, Nicholson joked about that with Williams. "You know Robo, now I have one for every decade."
During a 2013 Vanity Fair interview, Williams was asked who his favorite was to impersonate. After talking about how much he loved impersonating Nicholson, Williams told another anecdote about the actor and joked about him.
"He once was with me at a benefit and leaned over and said ‘even oysters have enemies.’ In a very intense voice. I responded with ‘Increase your dosage.’ [...] [I was] more fascinated than scared. He says things that even Buddha goes ‘ . . . what did that mean?’”
While Williams hinted at sharing a bond with Nicholson during those two interviews, it was an incident from the early 2000s that truly seems to prove they were friends. At the Critics Choice Awards, there were only three nominees for Best Actor, Nicholson, Williams, and Daniel Day-Lewis. In a strange twist of events, there was a tie with Nicholson and Day-Lewis both winning.
After Day-Lewis made a few remarks, Nicholson made his way to the stage. Nicholson seemingly admitted he was under the influence that night and then he asked Williams to join him on stage and give "the funniest acceptance speech I ever gave".
What preceded from there was several minutes of the funniest and most awkward moments in awards show history. When the cameras weren't showing movie stars in the audience laughing at Williams' remarks, Nicholson and Williams could be seen side by side.
At various points, Williams and Nicholson both have each other laughing very hard. Partway through the lengthy acceptance speech, Nicholson jokes about the film critics "honoring Robin". From there, Williams goes off on the fact that there were only three nominees and two people won. Williams joked that was the film critics pretty much saying "f**k you Robin".
Keeping in mind that the awards show incident took place more in the early 2000s, the Batman incident seemingly didn't affect Nicholson and Williams' friendship. At least, not in any long-term way.
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