In September 2013, almost 11 months before he died, Robin Williams did an AMA on the website Reddit. That’s Ask Me Anything, a Q&A session with Reddit users that a number of personalities—from President Barack Obama and Bill Gates to Madonna and Snoop Dogg—have participated in. It’s a lot of fun and gives regular people the chance to throw questions at interesting personalities.
Some AMAs go horribly wrong (see: Woody Harrelson), but Robin’s was successful: The Redditors asked interesting questions, he gave funny and insightful answers and everyone was happy. At the end of the AMA, he even posted this message: “Thank you for an incredible session.
This was really a lot of fun. And saved me a lot of therapy time. I hope to come back.”
Sadly, Robin never made it back for another session with his Reddit fans. But we will always have his first in our list of bookmarks.
Here were some of our favorite moments:
On calling Steven Spielberg while he was filming “Schindler’s List” to cheer him up:
DiegoVonCosmo: According to IMDb, you would frequently call Steven Spielberg during the filming of Schindler’s List to cheer him up. How did this arrangement begin? What was a typical conversation like?
RobinWilliamsHere: I think I only called him once, maybe twice. I called him when I was representing People for the Valdheimers Association. A society devoted to helping raise money to help older Germans who had forgotten everything before 1945. I remember him laughing and going, “Thank you.”
On his craziest/funniest fan encounter:
TheOneBadArtist: What was the craziest/funniest encounter you’ve had with a fan?
RobinWilliamsHere: A woman in the Dallas airport came up to me and literally said, “Be zany.”
Like she had walked up to Baryshnikov and said, “Dance.”
I didn’t know how to respond. I just went, “Thank you! And Lincoln freed everyone.”
On visiting Canada and naming his daughter after the video game character Zelda:
lawlshane: Can you come to Canada so I can hug you? I love you for naming your daughter Zelda.
RobinWilliamsHere: I will be there as soon as I can! You have to give me a more specific location, you are a big country. You are the kindest country in the world. You are like a really nice apartment over a meth lab.
And thank you. My other son, Mario, sends his greetings.
His response to fans who love his movies:
FUGGAWAGGA: (Forget) the haters, I loved Patch Adams.
RobinWilliamsHere: God bless you! Take off the nose now.
hostelo: Mr Williams,
Just wanted to say, forget what all the haters said. Hook was… awesome. That is all.
RobinWilliamsHere: Thank you. Lost boys rule!
On his Reddit-appropriate outfit:
NormalStranger: Mr. Williams—you asked us what we are wearing. I’m wearing a seductive A&W T-shirt with blue jeans. Drizzled with sexy coffee I accidentally spilled.
My question—what are you wearing?
RobinWilliamsHere: My god! I have on nothing but Google Glass! And I’m downloading as we speak.
On his friendship with Christopher Reeve:
uwpg2012: You were friends with Christopher Reeve. What is your best memory of him?
RobinWilliamsHere: Him being such a great friend to me at Juillard, literally feeding me
because I don’t think I literally had money for food or my student loan hadn’t come in yet, and he would share his food with me. And then later after the accident, just seeing him beaming and just, seeing what he meant to so many people.
On never growing up:
johnhalcyon: “Hook” is an all time favorite movie of mine. How did you connect with the role of an adult peter pan? Are you like a child? Lol. Have you had any imaginary food fights lately?
RobinWilliamsHere:
I think I am sometimes a poster child for arrested development in terms of I’m fascinated with toys and games. And I’m spontaneous. But no food fights. I’m gluten free. No, not really.
On his life as a gamer:
FUGGAWAGGA: Have you played GTA:V yet? What do you think of it?
RobinWilliamsHere:
No! I haven’t. I’m still waiting for the next Call of Duty. It’s been very unusual for me because I’ve done trips overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I would see guys who had just come back from patrol playing Call of Duty, and I would say “you’re living this stuff! And yet you’re still playing this game…”
Nosfermarki: God I hope I end up playing a call of duty match with you.
RobinWilliamsHere: I don’t usually play online, because getting my ass kicked by an 11
year old is very humbling!
On invitations from strangers:
GoltMcGoy: Hey Robin, I sent you a Legend of Zelda themed wedding invite. You did
not RSVP and the chair was left empty at my wedding. I feel betrayed. Thoughts?
RobinWilliamsHere: Did you not get the Mork doll??!?
On going Dutch:
fujinbotan: I remember someone asking me once if I could sit down with anyone for lunch that was famous, I picked you! Just thought you should know. :)
RobinWilliamsHere:
Thank you for picking me /u/fujinbotan. And are we splitting the check?
On life lessons and advice:
inconsequentially: Any advice for people out there like me who may be going through badtimes themselves, for whatever reason?
RobinWilliamsHere: Reach out to friends. They’re out there. And know that you are loved.
CassaSwack: I wept like an emotionally disturbed infant when I watched “What Dreams May Come.” What was the most valuable thing you learned about your acting from that movie/what criticism stuck with you the most afterwards?
RobinWilliamsHere: That every moment in life is precious? That the gifts of your relationships with others, don’t miss it. That was one of the hardest movies I think I ever did in my whole career. Every day was literally hell, because of the nature of the subject matter, dealing with death and being in hell literally. When I watched the final movie, I felt it was extraordinarily beautiful but I felt disappointed by the ending. There was a different ending that they shot that I felt was much more true to the story. It was about reincarnation, basically, that they were going to meet again. The movie ended with two babies being born simultaneously, one in Bombay and one in the United States, and they held them up, and then the screen went to black. I don’t know if it’s anywhere.
And this one—Robin did not respond to this Redditor’s story but we hope he saw it: codskar: My mother has a story of meeting you. She was in a Hard Rock Cafe (57th St., roughly 1985) and found a snail in her salad. She tried to quietly alert the waiter—not wanting to make a scene. Apparently you jumped up from the table next to hers demanding that if she got a slug, you want one too, loud enough for the other customers to hear. She has wondered for years if you remember this happening.
