Jamie Costa’s Robin Williams Teaser Trailer Takes the Internet By Storm

Movies

There’s test footage out there for a proposed Robin Williams biopic, and the man in the footage isn’t actually Robin. Jamie Costa, a little-known actor who posted a very popular Star Wars fan film, Kenobi – A Star Wars Fan Film, plays Robin in the clip. Costa is also known for doing voice acting in video games (notably the exquisite Final Fantasy VII Remake) and some animated shorts. He took it upon himself to put together a five-minute demo of what he thinks a filmic adaptation of Williams’ life could be. Is the resemblance uncanny or what?

The clip above was posted to Costa’s YouTube channel Monday, October 12th, and has so far (at time of print) garnered 4.2 million views. It has a nearly perfect like/dislike ratio because it’s that damn good.

The scene picks up on the set of Mork & Mindy on March 5th, 1982. We see Costa, eerily similar (perhaps a touch slighter of build) to Williams, getting into the Mork character. Pam Dawber (Sarah Murphree), Mindy McConnell on the show, comes in and breaks the news that John Belushi died of an overdose in a bungalow hotel room in Hollywood at Chateau Marmont.

Knowing that he had been with Belushi the night before, Williams is intensely upset by the news. Here, it’s difficult to see any flaws in the character work done by Costa, as he perfectly encapsulates the mannerisms of Robin’s grief. After the bad news has sunk in, we see Costa prepare to hit the show’s set with a completely different attitude.

Words do not do justice to this brief performance. There are many great biopics in the world – Ray and Walk the Line come to mind – but this little scene was something else. It’s tough to theorize if it’s possible to be this on point for an entire film. Considering the clip contains the emotional range, convincing vocal inflection, and tone with the nuanced facial movements that are 100% Robin, there’s something special there. Some company out there had best snatch this up.