NEED TO KNOW
Robin Williams never appeared in The Lord of the Rings, but he grew close to the cast.
Sean Astin remembers the confidence Williams gave him at the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring
The cast recalls playing charades with Robin Williams, Amy Poehler and Ed Norton
Image Credit: The Star Tracker
Robin Williams never marched on Mordor or slew an Orc, but that didn't stop him from becoming a member of The Lord of the Rings extended family.
The Star Tracker was there as Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan shared their favorite memories of spending time with the famous funny man while celebrating the 25th Anniversary premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring at the Anaheim Fan Expo.
Robin Williams' advice to Sean Astin
Sean Astin recalled feeling nervous and unsure at the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring. The $300 million fantasy films were considered a massive risk for a studio to take, and he didn’t know how audiences would respond to the tale of Hobbits, elves and other mythical creatures.
“I was at the premiere in Westwood and Robin Williams was there,” he told the audience. “I wasn’t feeling confident about the fact that the first one was a huge success at that moment, and he said some compliment, and I said, ‘Oh, you think?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yeah, you guys are locked in.”
The fact that Astin told this story to over one thousand fans who came to celebrate a movie that came out 25 years ago proved Williams right.
The Hobbits do improv with Robin Williams
While Robin never got to stomp his furry feet through Middle-earth, the hobbit actors did have the opportunity to meet him on his home turf when they played charades with Williams and a few Saturday Night Live cast members at a benefit for a theater company.
“Do you remember the time we played charades with Robin Williams in New York?” Monaghan asked his cast mates. “We did it with the Saturday Night Live girls. Amy Poehler…Maya Rudolph, Ed Norton and Robin Williams, all playing charades. It was in a boxing ring.”
Monaghan recalled the impact that creating comedy with Williams had on him.
“If someone ever says, you know, give me a little nugget of something that even you were impressed by, I can say, I once played charades with Robin Williams, which is pretty unbelievable.”
Boyd added, “That’s one of my favorite things to tell people.”
Wood exclaimed, “That was fucking nuts.”
It's a theme that comes up again and again whenever actors talk about Robin Williams. Even years after his death, the love he had for people is a light that continues to shine.
Robin Williams’s connection to The Lord of the Rings
It’s not a coincidence that Williams constantly found himself in the orbit of the LotR cast. He was a massive fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings books, and his agent repeatedly called Peter Jackson to see if he could land Williams a role in the films.
Jackson said that Williams was “desperate” to be a part of the cast, but that he decided he didn’t want to cast any recognizable American actors because he thought they would pull the audience out of the experience of journeying through Middle-earth.
While Williams never appeared in the films, and we would have loved to see his Tom Bombadil, he still left a lasting mark on the people who made them.
Williams’ Mrs. Doubtfire co-stars have also shared how his kindness affected their lives.
