Mrs Doubtfire director confirms there's an R-rated version of the Robin Williams film
25 March 2021, 12:31 | Updated: 25 March 2021, 12:33
The director of Mrs Doubtfire has come clean about a ruder version of the family film.
Mrs Doubtfire is the family friendly film which takes us right back to our childhood.
It sees Robin Williams as a divorcee who attempts to regain the trust of his ex-wife (Sally Field) by disguising himself as an elderly housekeeper.
But now director Chris Columbus has confirmed there are actually other versions of the movie, including an R-rated one.
The confession came after one fan Tweeted about possible other cuts of the film following an old interview with Columbus from 2015.
At the time, he said Robin Williams loved to improvise so the producers ended up with several versions of Mrs Doubtfire, including an NC-17 one (which is a UK 18).
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After the Tweet went viral, Columbus was forced to respond to the rumours, confirming while no NC-17 version exists, there is an R-rated one.
He told Entertainment Weekly: "The reality is that there was a deal between Robin and myself, which was, he'll do one or two, three scripted takes. And then he would say, 'Then let me play.'"
The director revealed they could end up with dozens of takes for each scene, continuing: “We would basically go on anywhere between 15 to 22 takes, I think 22 being the most I remember.
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“He would sometimes go into territory that wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG-13 movie, but certainly appropriate and hilariously funny for an R-rated film.”
Columbus then added: “I only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie."
So, will the public ever get to see these other versions? Well, it’s certainly not off the cards as Columbus has said he’s open to releasing unseen clips in the future.
"I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version," he said.
He continued: "The problem is, I don't recall most of it. I only know what's in the movie at this point because it's been a long time. But I do remember it was outrageously funny material."
