Francis Ford Coppola shares rare video of Robin Williams on “Jack” 30th anniversary
Francis Ford Coppola shares rare video of Robin Williams on “Jack” 30th anniversary
Ryan ColemanThu, July 30, 2026 at 11:22 PM UTC
1
Robin Williams in unseen footage of ‘Jack’; Robin Williams in ‘Jack’Credit: American Zoetrope/Instagram; Snap/ShutterstockKey Points -
Francis Ford Coppola has shared rare footage of Robin Williams from the set of 1996’s Jack.
In the video, Williams goofs off with costar Adam Zolotin, who played the younger version of Louis, the best friend of Williams’ titular hero.
Coppola commemorated the tragic coming-of-age comedy as “imaginative and unusual” on its 30th anniversary.
Francis Ford Coppola has opened the vault on his voluminous filmography to share a touching tribute to a lost legend.
“30 years ago, Jack premiered at the Palace of Fine Arts as a benefit supporting local charities,” Coppola wrote in the caption of a post jointly shared to Instagram on Thursday with his American Zoetrope production company.
The post consisted of unseen footage of Robin Williams on the set of the tragic coming-of-age comedy, which released in theaters 30 years ago next month.
“I loved making Jack and thought it was imaginative and unusual, despite the fact that the theme had been dealt with perfectly in BIG by Penny Marshall. “And the ending of Jack is very touching,” read a statement from Coppola quoted in the caption.
“Robin Williams plays Jack, a 10-year-old boy in a 40-year-old’s body. In this rehearsal clip with Adam Zolotin, the two adlib their way playfully through song, with the young Louis coercing his nervous friend to pretend to be the principal so that he won’t get in trouble with his mother,” the caption continued.
Williams and Zolotin joyfully lock hands, sing, and goof off in the behind-the-scenes clip.
Advertisement
In the film, Zolotin played Louis Durante, the son of Fran Drescher’s Dolores Durante and Jack’s best friend. The film launched Zolotin’s career, and came at the center of the most feverish period of productivity in Williams’ career, sandwiched between The Birdcage, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, The Secret Agent, and Hamlet in 1996 alone.
Robin Williams stars in ‘Jack’Credit: American Zoetrope/Hollywood/Kobal/Shutterstock
As Coppola pointed out, critical notices for Jack were dominated by comparisons to Big, the Penny Marshall comedy starring Tom Hanks that shared a remarkably similar premise, but was released eight years earlier.
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
Jack featured a stellar ensemble of supporting stars, including Brian Kerwin, Diane Lane, and Jennifer Lopez. In 2024, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Williams’ death at age 63, Lopez also shared a memory from the Jack set.
The actress and pop star shared a clip from the film in which her Miss Marquez, a teacher, gently introduces Jack to his peers.
“We all have a lot more in common than you think,” Lopez wrote, quoting her line from the film. “Celebrating 28 years of this very special movie Jack with the incomparable Robin Williams.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
