As celebrities often do when they have something to promote these days, Robin Williams showed up on Reddit this afternoon to promote his new show The Crazy Ones by doing an AMA. But as it turned out, Robin's Ask Me Anything was different.
Robin talked very little about his new show, instead he dove into the question and answer session with fans with all the enthusiasm and energy you'd expect of, well, Robin Williams. It probably helps that the guy is, apparently, something of a geek. Check out the fifteen most amazing, gotta read things we learned about Robin during his fantastic AMA, right here...
Robin Williams loves anime. In particular he's a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Beebop, "Ghost in the Shell. Akira. Blood: The Last Vampire. But mostly Ghost in the Shell."
Robin Williams is a gamer. He plays Legend of Zelda. "Ocarina of Time is the best." His daughter, Zelda, is named after the game. He plays Portal and loves making Portal references. He's currently playing Battlestation Pacific. He also plays Call of Duty. "I'm still waiting for the next Call of Duty. It's been very unusual for me because I've done trips overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I would see guys who had just come back from patrol playing Call of Duty, and I would say 'you're living this stuff! And yet you're still playing this game...'" The XBOX is his current system of choice.
Robin Williams' loves Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. "It's one of the greatest books of all time, and the greatest character is The Mule."
Robin’s favorite book as a kid was Chronicles of Narnia's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. He says, "I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said 'don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself.' So I did, I just read it straight, and she said 'that's better.'"
Robin called Steven Spielberg during the filming of Schindler's List to cheer him up. "I think I only called him once, maybe twice. I called him when I was representing People for the Valdheimers Association. A society devoted to helping raise money to help older Germans who had forgotten everything before 1945. I remember him laughing and going 'thank you.'"
When this happened on Mork & Mindy…
Robin says, "When I did that show dressed as cheerleader in the Denver Bronco mile high stadium, I realized that the end of our TV show was in sight." What Dreams May Come was one of the toughest movies to make in Robin’s career. He says, "Every day was literally hell, because of the nature of the subject matter, dealing with death and being in hell literally. When I watched the final movie, I felt it was extraordinarily beautiful but I felt disappointed by the ending. There was a different ending that they shot that I felt was much more true to the story. It was about reincarnation, basically, that they were going to meet again. The movie ended with two babies being born simultaneously, one in Bombay and one in the United States, and they held them up, and then the screen went to black. I don't know if it's anywhere."
Robin's favorite directors to work with were Bobcat Goldthwait (World's Greatest Dad, also they're close friends) and Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society).
Robin wants to work with Patton Oswalt, "Just because I think he's such a gifted standup but also a really, really great actor."
Robin's most memorable moment filming Hook: "Flying. I only felt bad for the five guys who had to haul my fat ass up. At that time there were very few mechanical devices so it was literally guys on pulleys flying me across - I think it was 2 guys to pull me across. They would say "we're doing another take" and they would say 'oh not again.'"
Robin's favorite role: "I think playing Oliver Sachs in Awakenings was a gift because I got to meet him, and got to explore the human brain from the inside out. Because Oliver writes about human behavior subjectively and that for me was the beginning of a fascination with human behavior."
Robin thinks Gene Hackman is really funny. While filming The Birdcage, "His speech about the leaves in New England was one of the funniest, driest pieces of comedy I'd ever seen... the day that Gene Hackman did the story... it was so funny that everyone was laughing so hard but had to keep a straight face. "
If Robin Williams could be any animal he would be, "A dolphin. Just their abilities, how social they are, how sexual they are, how intelligent they are, mainly how social they are."
Robin is an avid cyclist in his spare time. "My favorite thing to do is ride a bicycle. I ride road bikes. And for me, it's mobile meditation."
Robin recently did this:
Read our review for The Crazy Ones here.
