Photographed by Martin Schoeller for The New Yorker in 2002:
"I was hired by the New Yorker in 2002 to photograph Robin Williams, and after doing my research what stood out most for me was that he was a very physical comedian. I came up with this idea to photograph him swinging from a chandelier in a grand hotel room. Most publicists shoot down these kinds of wild ideas, so I didn’t tell anyone what I was up to, but rigged up a chandelier at the Waldorf Astoria hotel for him to swing from. When Robin got there and saw what was happening, he lifted up his shirt and showed me this enormous scar on his shoulder. He’d just had surgery and couldn’t so much as lift his arm. He was so disappointed! He really felt bad about not being able to do it, because he loved the idea and really wanted to help me accomplish my vision.
Unlike most Hollywood stars, he was unfazed by his success and position. He talked to everyone from stylists to the crew, to the hotel staff. We ended up asking a maid at the hotel to swing from the chandelier instead, and I asked him to just sit there and read a newspaper, which I think in the end was an even funnier, more unexpected picture.
[Follies Of God]
[ID: a photo of Robin Williams sitting in a mostly empty room reading a newspaper. He is perched on a coffee table with his legs crossed, wearing a red jacket and bright blue shoes, and is reading with an amused expression on his face. Behind him, a woman in a beige maid uniform is swinging from a chandelier and smiling. /end ID.]
In 2010 I was at a very fancy Hollywood Oscar party and I am no good at parties and had made up my mind to leave. I was introduced to a young woman whose name I hadn’t caught who, when I told her how uncomfortable I was, told me that her dad was there and she and she and he would look after me. She told me that her dad was the Sandman fan and had got her hooked, which was why she was wearing an ankh that night.
I was desperate for someone nice and headed out with her across the lawn to where her dad was holed up. I assumed he was a producer or something. As we got close and I did see him under the tent canopy I realized who her dad was. Zelda Williams and I have stayed friends. Her father did the equivalent of pulling a thorn from my foot, and I spent the evening with them enjoying the party as much as I could, because now I had friends. I remember him with such gratitude.
