People: He has a lot left to improv on
Robin Williams is an improv artisan, an Oscar-winning dramatic actor and the kind of off-the-cuff performer who seems to live in a perpetual animated state of comic creation.
In his new film, “License to Wed,” Williams plays an over-the-top pastor who puts a young, ready-to-marry couple through an intrusive pre-wedding prep course.
He shifts gears for “August Rush,” a dramatic fable due this fall. Then he’ll double-clutch back to comedy, with 2008’s “Old Dogs” opposite John Travolta, and a planned return to the road with his stand-up act.
Q: You bounce between comedy and drama. Do you approach them differently?
A: No, not really. Sometimes with a comedy it’s just having the instinct of how real you play it and what level you want it. But no. I think for me it’s the same amount of work and preparation for both.
Q: Do you have a preference?
A: My preference is live performance.
Q: Why?
A: Because you get the feedback. There’s an energy. It’s live theater. That’s why I think actors like that. You know, musicians need it, comedians definitely need it. It doesn’t matter what size and what club, whether it’s 30 people in the club or 2,000 in a hall or a theater. It’s live, it’s symbiotic, you need it.
Q: When and how did you know you wanted to be an actor?
A: I knew when I failed my political science classes that the options were closing.
Q: Have you wanted to perform since you were a kid?
A: No, it didn’t really hit until senior year of high school and they had the class play where you made fun of the teachers and I could do dead-on impressions of like two or three of them. It got huge laughs and it was like, ‘Oh this is good.’ And, like a lot of guys, you start doing that and all the sudden girls are like, ‘You’re funny.’ It’s a way to meet women. … Then something else kicked in where all the sudden you start doing it and going, ‘I really enjoy this.’ And you’re doing improv and the chance to use all the knowledge that you have, and you get the laughs too. Then it’s really fun.
Q: Is improv your thing?
A: Sometimes you can have stuff and it looks like improv but other times, when you’re really improvising, that’s when it’s really fun. I mean, when you really do find a new idea or you’re in and it’s all working, that’s the gift. It’s like a musician when they hit a riff, that’s when you’re like all right, it’s mellow. When it happens, it’s a gift. You back off and just ride it.
The birthday bunch
Actress Shirley Knight is 71. Musician Robbie Robertson is 64. Singer Huey Lewis is 57. Singer Marc Cohn is 48. Actress Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”) is 44. Actress Kathryn Erbe (“Law and Order: Criminal Intent”) is 42. Rapper RZA is 38. Singer Jason Wade (Lifehouse) is 27.