'It was like a chicken bone breaking': The day Robin Williams broke Robert De Niro's nose – Movie News
Robin Williams breaking Robert De Niro's nose, one can imagine the latter's reaction as anything but peaceful – and yet. A look back at this most incredible anecdote about two of the most iconic actors of all time.
He is one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, this Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese's favorite, who starred in classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Puppet Waltz, or alongside Quentin Tarantino in Jackie Brown, who called him “best actor in the world”, deserving its “reputation as probably the greatest actor of his generation”. And this “great” in question also received the Oscar for best supporting role in 1975 for The Godfather 2 as well as the Oscar for best leading actor for Raging Bull in 1981.
Similarly, there was no actor more culturally relevant in the late 20th century than the late Robin Williams, who earned four Academy Award nominations for films such as Good Morning, Vietnam in 1988, Dead Poets Society in 1990, The Fisher King in 1992, and of course Good Will Hunting in 1998, for which he won Best Supporting Actor. And certainly not to be forgotten are his beloved roles in Hook (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Jumanji (1995) – among many others.
Two famous actors and a “confrontation”
These two cultural forces met on the set of The Awakening (1990), a drama and biopic directed by Penny Marshall, in which Robin Williams plays a caring doctor at a local Bronx hospital and Robert De Niro plays his catatonic patient. The film, which also stars Ruth Nelson and John Heard, follows the doctor's efforts to help heal several patients left in that state since an encephalitis outbreak many years ago.
In a physical role for both actors, it seems that the experience went a little off the rails when Robin Williams ended up breaking the nose of Robert De NiroSpeaking during a television interview with Australian presenter Ray Martin in 1991, Robin Williams had thus evoked this moment.
First asked why Robert De Niro intimidated him, the actor had replied: “Oh please… He looks at you and you say, 'It's not me, I swear!'”, pretending to be scared of himself for not doing anything and making the audience laugh at the same time. He went on to state, however, that despite the actor's tough exterior, “the truth is he is a very sweet man”.
About the incident itself, he revealed: “While filming this movie I accidentally broke his nose, we had this fight where I was supposed to hold him down while he was having a seizure and my elbow went 'bam'. And it was like a chicken bone breaking sound.”, describing the sound heard when his co-star's nose broke. The comedian then joked that after the impact, “All of a sudden the team was like, 'I have to go now.'”, for fear of De Niro’s presumed reaction.
Columbia Pictures
Contrary to popular belief about his character, he simply got up and assured everyone that he was fine before being escorted to the hospital. Robin Williams then joked that the surgeon told the injured man that his nose had actually been put back in place thanks to him after Raging Bull !
Between two jokes, he finally concluded that Robert De Niro was intimidating”just because he's so great and because he has that kind of presence and focus.”
The Awakening, rated 4.1 out of 5 by AlloCiné viewers, can be rediscovered in streaming on Netflix.
Check out the hilarious anecdote told by the hilarious Robin Williams in the clip below: