Did you know the Heroes in a Half Shell had an unofficial crossover with a certain cartoon Genie? While Robin Williams isn’t the first name that comes to mind when people hear the words “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” believe it or not, the late comedian had a small but significant connection to the franchise. It’s no secret that Robin Williams was a nerd at heart. The comedian famously named his daughter Zelda after the Legend of Zelda series of video games from Nintendo and even went on to star with her in several commercials for the franchise. On top of that, he was an avowed comic book collector — including those starring the Heroes in a Half Shell.
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It was through those very comic books that Robin Williams helped actress Judith Hoag prepare for her role as April O’Neil in the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. Hoag was near the end of filming Cadillac Man with Williams when she received the script for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Initially, Hoag thought the title sounded goofy, but after reading a script that, in her words, turned out to be “very sweet,” the actress agreed to do the movie.
As Hoag told the Magical Rewind podcast last year, she would attempt to leave the New York set of Cadillac Man early every Friday to fly to North Carolina for pre-production on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eventually, her co-star caught on to Judith’s routine.
“One time, Robin looked at me and said, ‘Where are you running off to?’” Hoag told Magical Rewind. According to Hoag, when she reluctantly told Williams the offbeat title of the other movie she was filming, his response was a puzzled, “What?” The actress, assuming that Williams, like everyone else at the time, was surprised by the weird-sounding name, attempted to defend her decision to join the odd production.
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“It’s called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” Hoag repeated before quickly adding, “Ignore the title, it’s a really sweet script.”
Little did the actress know that Robin’s reaction wasn’t one of incredulity, but of pleasant surprise. It turned out the actor was a fan of the property and couldn’t believe it was being turned into a movie.
“I have all the comic books,” he excitedly told Hoag. Unbeknownst to Williams, that was the exact version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hoag had been told to concentrate on.
“Todd Langdon,” the actress told an interviewer at the Niagara Falls Comic Con, “Who is the writer for the original film, his marching orders were, ‘Don’t watch the cartoon, read the comic books, we’re making the comic book version.’”
According to Hoag, once Williams knew where she was disappearing to every weekend, he made it his mission to get her off the set as early as possible every Friday. As a result, the actress threw herself enthusiastically into her role as the TMNT’s closest human ally, a role that she still gets recognised for today despite not returning for the two live-action sequels.
“I do not kid myself that the first thing that will be in my obituary is April O’Neil,” the actress told the crowd at the Tulsa Comic Expo in 2015. It’s a sentiment we’re sure her Cadillac Man co-star Robin Williams understood all too well after appearing in 1992’s Aladdin.
Robin’s support for his co-star went beyond helping her leave early and lending her a few comics to skim through. As Hoag recalls, Williams flew his entire family out to Los Angeles for the 1990 premiere of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a gesture that the actress says “meant the world to her.”
Unfortunately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is not currently available on any streaming service, but it is available to buy or rent from Amazon Prime Video and most other digital entertainment marketplaces.
