A Harry Potter Director's Sci-Fi Flop Put Robin Williams Into A Weird Costume

Chris Columbus was an ideal choice for starting the "Harry Potter" franchise because he had directed another family-friendly fantasy "Bicentennial Man" just two years earlier. Although it was more science fiction, it also tells a story of someone with extraordinary abilities trying to fit in. The majority of Chris Columbus' films are sentimental and warm, using either broad humor or heart-tugging melodrama to celebrate the fantastical events that can take place even in ordinary suburbia.

Set in the future, "Bicentennial Man" is part comedy and part weepie about Andrew, a robot servant who grows close to the family he is cooking, cleaning, and babysitting for. Like any robot who has sentience, he wants to be more than a machine and become a human man. He embarks on a 200-year journey to do so, advocating for rights as a new robot-turned-human, and calling into question the ideals of consciousness, immortality, and technological ethics. This all feels especially prescient in light of today's AI takeover. Andrew wants to be a "complete" human being, and that includes falling in love and having sex. He experiences this with Portia, the granddaughter of his original owner, making for quite the May-December romance. Their offbeat love story has one of the weirdest kisses in sci-fi history, considering their close family ties and Andrew's clunky innocence. 

Since "Bicentennial Man" was made in 1999, shortly before fully-CGI characters would become more ubiquitous on screen, the practical design of the robot was done by special effects artist Steve Johnson. He crafted an entire silver bodysuit, along with a head appliance made from vacuum-formed plastic and foam rubber, sculpted to uncannily resemble star Robin Williams' face (via Heritage Auctions). Apparently, Robin Williams fully embraced this heavy and odd-looking costume he had to wear.

While it could've been anyone under the blocky costume, Robin Williams insisted on wearing it, telling the Las Vegas Sun, "It had to be me, or audiences would have noticed it didn't act or move like me — you know that bow-legged walk I have. I had to wear this suit-of-armor costume, and they adjusted all the engineering around my body." No computerized special effect could recreate the intimacy of having Robin Williams truly present for the scenes or witnessing the human spark inside of Andrew growing stronger. 

Costumes influence how actors move, think, and emote. Robin Williams drew on his Juilliard training to inhabit the heavy suit with no peripheral vision. The limited motion, he explained, helped him feel Andrew's technological operation and curiosity in his body, as well as fully immerse himself in Andrew's mechanical way of perceiving the world:

"You start to learn how a robot will track a room before you move. You stand, scan, and then, boom, you go. Which is what they do when you look at the research for robotic movement. What they're doing is basically mapping the territory, looking for obstacles, doing a 3-D representation, and then moving. Now all they need to do is work on the speed — which is scary to think because science is not to far off."

Over 25 years later, Tesla robots are kind of our own versions of Andrew. Will they eventually fight to become more than our domestic subordinate? "Bicentennial Man" is definitely not the best Robin Williams movie (it was also a box office flop), but it does demonstrate how Williams' star power is so great that he delivers a touching performance with plenty of heart and humor even from behind a cold, metallic shell.