Suicidal Robin Williams pulled out all the stops to nab a role in the Harry Potter movies — but a rule by J.K. Rowling crushed the comic’s dream!
Desperate to portray the series gamekeeper Hagrid, the Mork & Mindy legend even placed a personal call to Chris Columbus, the director of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
“Robin had called because he really wanted to be in the movie,” reveals casting director Janet Hirshenson. But the director was powerless to offer him the role — because Potter creator Rowling only wanted British actors in the film!
Robin Williams: The Disease That Ate His Brain
“It was a British-only edict,” says Hirshenson, adding Robbie Coltrane was author J.K. Rowling’s first choice to play Hagrid!
The ban on American actors left Robin — who died in 2014 — upset, and he even confessed: “There were a couple of parts I would have loved to play!”
