One of the most interesting film-related tweets of the past week revolved around “Mrs. Doubtfire” and now it has received a semi-confirmation by the film’s original director Chris Columbus.
The beloved 1993 comedy saw Robin Williams as a man dressing up as a Scottish nanny named Euphegenia Doubtfire to be closer to his kids while he and his wife are going through a divorce.
FactsOnFilm posted a tweet the other day indicating that the late Williams “improvised so much that there were PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 cuts of the film”.
The film itself ended up being a PG-13, though in the wake of this many hoped the story was true. Speaking with EW, Columbus shot down the NC-17 cut talk but does say there is some definite R-rated material there as Williams asked him to “let me play” after they did a few scripted takes. The result was many gags had a further 15-20 takes with his own improvised lines:
“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 says it’s unlikely a full R-rated edition of “Mrs. Doubtfire” will ever be available, but does have an idea as to how we might see some of that cut footage:
“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. I think that would be the best approach. I’m very proud of this film.”
Columbus also says editor Raja Gosnell and producer Marsha Garces Williams would likely be up for doing such a documentary.
