It turns out that there's a much wilder version of Mrs. Doubtfire that never saw the light of day.
The twitter account @factsonfilm recently made a tweet that claimed, "While filming 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (1993), Robin Williams improvised so much that there were PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 cuts of the film." After the tweet, fans started speculating about the existence of an NC-17 cut of the '90s comedy.
The rumor of more explicit cuts first came about in an interview with the film's director, Chris Columbus, back in 2015. Columbus told Yahoo! that working with Williams was a gift because "the other actors had no idea what he was going to say." He then claimed that because of Williams's rapid-fire (and sometimes risqué) improvisation, there was "literally, a PG rated version of the film, PG-13, R, and NC-17.”
Now that the viral tweet has revived discussion around these potential versions, Columbus talked with Entertainment Weekly to clarify his previous statement. After confirming that there is actually no NC-17 version of the film, Columbus told EW that there are three different versions, including an R-rated cut. He said, "[Williams] 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. I only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie."
When asked if the R-rated cut might ever get a release, Columbus said: "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...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."
However, Columbus added that he was pleased with the current version of the film saying, "I'm in a good place with Mrs. Doubtfire, so there's really no reason to do the definitive cut. The definitive cut of Mrs. Doubtfire is out in the world right now."
If the R-rated version ever gets a release, we would love to see the uncensored nanny in full form.
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