By Tonisha Johnson

You once said: "You're only given a little spark of madness, you mustn't lose it." Is that why you try to find the madness in every role you take?

Robin Williams: Yeah, you try and find...kind of the unusual traits, the weird behavior. It was weird -- Marlon Brando, before he died, gave this acting class and I got to listen for two days. He said, (doing Brando) "You know, everybody reads the paper, but people read it a hundred different ways...find your own way of reading the paper." And he proceeded to read a paper...and then he ate it. But, it was like finding those weird little -- you know -- behavior...looks...things that help for me.

What did you do to develop this character in this film?

Robin Williams: I looked at a lot of different syndromes. That's why he has a very specific look -- he looks almost like an elf. That's a high-functioning form of mental handicap -- they're socially capable but certain things are very difficult for them, and there, very literally, is a distortion of the facial features. They're very open and free that way. But, their intellect is about that of an 11-year old or 10-year old; emotionally, about the same age. They can deal socially and you think nothing at all is wrong. They can talk and be like anybody else, except you sense that certain things are difficult for them. And that's why with Anton [Yelchin], he's the brains and I'm the brawn -- and peddling that bike around, for me, was a blast. Riding that bike around the village was like, "Yeah, baby!"

This was your exercise moment.

Robin Williams: Yeah. My brief exercise moment, when I wasn't riding my own bike. But, it was fun. The greatest thing about this movie was that we got to shoot in New York -- in the Village, in SoHo, and not in Toronto...not that Toronto is bad, for those who live there.

Are you bummed you didn't get to go to Paris?

Robin Williams: I wish I could have gone for that one moment to have a French person go, "I live here. I don't care about your movies...I'm full of warrior sperm, but every forty years, the Germans come and take it. We had the only production of "Anne Frank" where we went 'she's upstairs!' Parisian version." I wish I could have. I've never done a movie in Paris. I'd love to. I've done them in Italy, which was great but...

What's this song?

Robin Williams: The song -- the animated song was a song that was basically implying that cartoon characters are as fucked up as we are. I remember some of the words: "Pinocchio's had his nose done/Betty Boop works Beverly Hills...Snow White's been up all night..." A lot of that stuff, and at one point it was like, "Casper's in the Ku Klux Klan." They literally had a note saying, "That's not in his character." We went, "We know it isn't in his character." We know there isn't some Southern memo going around saying (affects Southern accent) "Casper's been a member for a number of years." It wasn't even a censorship with people writing letters saying "Why can't we have good old-fashioned entertainment? Like 'Birth of a Nation." I think it was mainly coming from "the Mouse" [Disney] saying "Don't mess with our characters or you'll wake up with a Mr. Potato Head in your bed." So, it was more corporate. It's a very weird thing. Now, I hear that Congress wants to try and...Senators are going "You have to censor HBO!" "That's right, Mr. DeLay. As soon as that check clears, maybe you'll know. Has your wife gotten the money back yet?" "That's not my wife's check. Or my daughter's!" "Filibuster. That's a hypenate." No, sir. It's only one word."

Many comedians have dark sides. Charlie Chaplin....

Robin Williams: You mean dark sides with thirteen year olds. Before there was Michael, there was Charlie going "Just step on the boat. Don't be afraid." And Errol Flynn going, "You could never have sex with a woman like that. If you're at the porthole you can."

...Steve Martin...

Robin Williams: Steve Martin has a dark side? He's serious, but its dry. He was at dinner with Prince Charles -- now that he's married, we can talk...and now he can have dental work -- and he said, "And what exactly do you do?" Which, for the Royal Family, is a big question. But, dark side?

I don't know. I mean someone like Christopher Durang, let's say. He's hysterical in his plays, but off-stage, he's very serious.

Robin Williams: Oh, yes. A lot of people are like that. For me it's kind of both. I can be quiet -- like a lady came up to me once in the airport and said, "Be zany." I went, "What?" It's like that thing Jon Stewart said when he did that wonderful interview. He said, "I'm not your monkey." Sometimes it's fun to play, other times you have to say "Okay, now. Thank you." The world can hit you as pretty dark right now. It rough when you read everything and go, "Oh..." And then people are like "What's wrong?" "I'm sorry. I just read the paper. I'm a little bummed." But, dark side? I don't think I have much of that. But, like you said, with Chaplin...it involved court, over a period of time.

Did you see the Mork & Mindy TV Movie?

Robin Williams: No. When they make a bad movie about your life, you tend not to watch. You tend to wait for it to be on the Cartoon Network or, at least, on ice. When I heard about it, I was like, "Oh, wow...I don't remember those years to begin with."

So, when you're playing this character, do you find it's difficult to make a balance between making the character real and having moments where you want to make little...some elements funny?

Robin Williams: They're funny. They can be funny and knowingly funny. Someone said, "Did you improvise a lot?" I said, "No. He's not a riffing kind of guy." If it is it's a lot slower...and that's why he can go through those jokes with Thomas and say things -- and also be around him when he starts to see the girl. He says things that are obnoxious and he knows they're obnoxious. He's like the little brother trying to mess up a date. So, he's capable of doing that. He can be very open and, sometimes, very dark. If things are angry and violent, and things go wrong -- he can do what he did.

Do you ever think there is a line you can cross -- exploitation?

Robin Williams: I remember the day when I saw "I Am Sam." The people you watched were the Down's Syndrome people. Exploitation? I mean if they're there, they exist. It's not acting for them. I don't think they're going, "I need another take. I really don't think that was my character." A friend of mine used to do a routine -- remember Corky, he used to have that show? They don't have a lot of posses. "Timmy wouldn't say that! And my posse said that...my peeps, my main peeps." There's not a big retarded posse hanging around going "Yo! What's up? Throwin' it down. Represent. Shoutin' it out to my homeboys." Is there exploitation? There is a fine line of walking that "are you laughing at them?" or "are you laughing with them?" Some of them can be very funny, very real, and very open -- and other times, very dark. It depends upon how far you want to go with it.

I just talked to Sigourney Weaver, who's doing research for an autistic role. She referred to it as -- she said she's "on the spectrum of autism."

Robin Williams: She's probably -- severe autism borders on catatonic.

She's saying that spectrum includes everybody.

Robin Williams: Oh yeah. Different people have different functions. It's like Paula Poundstone's line, "Every family is dysfunctional." You have autism, that disconnect...which, in modern society....what was it? Lange said he thought schizophrenia was an evolutionary response to modern society. Basically, you have degrees of people "playing sane." There's the rest of us, and then, the few who are like, "Fuck the pretense! I'm going to shit on the table now. Does that bother you? I have some warrior turds!"