Making-of: how Robin Williams became Mrs. Doubtfire

Hours of makeup and rehearsals to get into the shoes of the famous nanny.

TFX will rebroadcast a sure value from the small screen on this eve of school-free day: Mrs. Doubtfirethe family comedy of Chris Columbus (Harry Potter 1 And 2) Or Robin Williams plays a Daniel Hillard, a divorced father, who poses as a governess in order to be able to get closer to his children. By his side, Sally Fields, Pierce Brosnan or Mara Wilson enjoy his antics in what remains thirty years later one of the most endearing family productions of the 1990s.

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Having become a cult for an entire generation, Mrs. Doubtfire gave Williams' make-up team, Greg Cannom, Ve Neill and Yolanda Toussieng, the Oscar for best make-up in 1994.

We discover during this making-of video to what extent this important make-up helped the actor blend into the skin of the character (“and not the 'actor's studio' method!'“, he says at the start of the edit, mockingly). It took several attempts before the final look of Madame Doubtfire was found, as explained by the director, who was visibly having fun like a kid on the set faced with the improvisations of his star. His remarks are illustrated by extracts from the costume tests of the actor, who, once transformed, takes on a female figure to speak to the member of the technical team. He also reveals having tested several timbres of voice, more or less high, before finding the right tone.

This represented several hours of makeup on the days he had to shoot in costume, Robin Williams having to wear multiple prosthetics, both on his face and on his body. Otherwise Mrs Doubtfire would have had hairy hands, he laughs. Then he had to wear foundation, lipstick, a wig, glasses, a magnifying suit, etc.

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Mrs. Doubtfire is undoubtedly one of the favorite feature films of fans of the actor who died during the summer of 2014: during its French release, the film attracted more than 5 million spectators to the cinema, and has since been the delight of the little screen. And to think that the author of the novel, Anne Fine, did not see Robin Williams in the role of Daniel at all: when writing it, she rather imagined Warren Beatty, the star of Bonnie and Clyde !

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