June 07, 2005 |
Robin Williams and Mork's Movie Dork
by Daniel R. Coleridge with Angel Cohn
Chris Diamantopoulos took some razzing for his portrayal of Robin Williams in NBC's Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy (an encore airs tonight at 8 pm/ET). The film got Jeered by TV Guide for "reducing Robin Williams to a perky yet sad clown." As for Williams himself, he claims he didn't even bother to watch. "It's weird," the comic cracks. "If they're going to make a bad movie about your life, then [you should] wait for the Cartoon Network [version]." Of course, the film's leading man denies that his portrayal is just a gratuitous rehash of Williams' alleged diva behavior and drug problems during the classic sitcom's run. "I don't think the movie's exploitative," Diamantopoulos tells TVGuide.com. "By nature, a biopic — whether the person's alive or dead — is [for] making money. Even Ray , to some degree, is exploitative. "A lot of people ask how I think Robin Williams feels [about this film]," adds the 29-year-old thesp, who has guest-starred on everything from American Dreams to Nip/Tuck. "How would you feel? A movie's being made about you and they're not asking for your advice, opinion or permission. So even if the movie comes out a masterpiece, it's still got to be frustrating. It's OK for him to joke about his [past], but when it's put on the screen as a drama, that's got to be unnerving. He probably feels the way anyone would feel. "I can only hope someone close to Robin Williams will watch and realize — without sounding cheesy — that what we've ultimately done is venerate him. He went through such adversity and came out a clean hero on the other side." That said, Williams may still hate the movie — if he ever gets around to seeing it, that is. Does Diamantopoulos look forward to a punch in the nose if he should ever encounter the former Mork from Ork in the flesh? "He's a classy gentleman. If he were to come up to me and say 'F--- you,' I'd have to take it, but I can't imagine that would happen. "The one really big advantage that I have is that I look so little like what I play in the movie that I can disassociate myself from it," he chuckles. "One reason I almost didn't get an [audition] appointment is that I look nothing like [Williams]. In the film, I'm wearing a wig and these prosthetic contact lenses that are handpainted to be almost retinal copies of Robin Williams' eyes." To his credit, Diamantopoulos needed no assistance to uncannily mimic the comic's speaking voice. (Seriously, it's eerie.) "Most of the actors passed on this because no one wants to go down in history as the guy who tried to be Robin Williams," he says, "but playing regular characters is boring for me. I'm sort of a vocal chameleon."
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