The daughter of a comic book legend, Zelda Williams isn’t oblivious to the huge shoes she had to fill when she started working in Hollywood. This fact in itself made her realize early on that if she had to do it, she would do it by forging her own path.
She told E! “I think everyone thinks that when kids want to be actors, they try to rape their parents.” Online in 2017.
Somewhat unexpectedly, she always knew that, unlike her father, she was not interested in acting. Robin Williams’ career took off as Mork on the 1970s sitcom Mork & Mindy, before appearing in several comedies and famous for his improvisational skills.
“If your father is the first person on the moon, don’t go”, I will be the first person to land on the moon again. ” What is the point ? ” E ! Related.
But even though the 31-year-old wasn’t trying to do the same as her dad, that doesn’t mean the couple didn’t end up working together. Zelda Williams made her big-screen debut at just 15, starring opposite her famous father in the 2004 comedy-drama House of D. Speaking about her experience working in Hollywood as a teenager, she said that she struggled with the merger at first, as E! Related.
“I was just a tough kid,” she says. “That’s not even to say that it depended on me being a woman, I just didn’t fit in. I guess more than that, I didn’t live up to what a lot of people expected of me as a woman – say, I’ve had my head shaved for a while.”
As the child of such a famous and established actor, she may feel the pressure to establish herself as an actress worthy of her name. Zelda Williams said: “A lot of child actors are very good role models and I wasn’t. I was really clumsy and short and had a low voice. I wasn’t what they expected me to be. me as a kid for an actor,” Zelda Williams said.
Engaged in the theater and working alongside her father, growing up, Zelda Williams chose to focus on another aspect of the industry and on what she loves the most: writing. The 31-year-old made her screenwriter, director and producer debut in 2018 with the short film Shrimp, which premiered the same year at the Tribeca Film Festival. E ! What she loved most about the Internet was disturbing the public with new ideas, which inspired her to dive into the world of horror and psychological thriller.
Shrimp is about a group of women in Los Angeles, but rather than taking a sassy look at the subject, whose world is often portrayed in film and television, Williams examined the mundane aspects of work and the normal life qu they have outside of work. . In an interview with Variety, she explained:
“When I started creating ‘Shrimp’ two years ago, I could never have imagined where this journey would take me, or the wonderful people I’ve met along the way. I’m so happy to have the opportunity to shine an enlighten this community in a more positive and honest way than Hollywood has before, especially since their mastery of consent is something that I think a lot of people can now learn from .”
The short’s success landed Williams a deal with production company Gunpowder and Sky to develop his short into a 30-minute series. The production company’s CEO, Van Toffler, told Variety, as noted in the same article:
“We were really drawn to ‘Shrimp’ because Zelda was able to take a generally taboo subject, turn it around and take advantage of the daily happenings of the Dominatrix community and tell their story in an authentic way.”
She was also blessed with some of the best acting advice from her late father, Robin Williams. In a 2018 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she spoke about the acting advice her father passed on to her:
“As an actor, it’s completely different from the rest of the movie, but it’s always been, you know, being nice, working hard, and I think the concept of ego has taken hold of a lot of people in our industry thinking what they’re offering should be a certain thing to them. And honestly, you’re not your audience, so all of this self-awareness and all of that — actually stopping you from being the best thing in everything you do.
For many years, Zelda Williams admits she struggled to find work as an actress, which she believed was due to a lack of talent or charisma. That was until her mentor told her that was not the problem, but the industry for not choosing women closer to reality. It helped her realize that she should write roles for herself. Zelda Williams took this advice seriously, as she not only wrote and directed Shrimp, but also starred in the short.
Considering her journey to becoming a director took a while to develop, it seems like she really took that advice on board, only starting out acting, but has since moved on to a more creative role behind and in front of the camera. . It’s also in his genes, as Robin Williams was more than just an actor and comedian, but he also wrote, produced, and sometimes directed movies and TV shows. Meanwhile, his mother, Marsha Garces Williams, is a film producer.
Having a famous and talented father like Robin Williams might sound like a good thing and we’re sure there are a lot of positives, but it definitely influenced how far Zelda Williams has come to find her true purpose. She admits it was quite a journey before she could show her lyrics to anyone. It wasn’t until she met her idol, Guillermo Del Toro, that she found the courage to finally pursue her dream.
Zelda admitted, “It was after my dad died, and I think my mom was the only one who read my work.” “I kind of turned around, and I’ve never been a fan – because I saw it with my dad and I don’t want to be like that, even though my dad was always good at it – but I I just said that your films mean a lot to me and I want to be a director.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Much like her father, Zelda Williams is now making waves in Hollywood, albeit in a different way.
Zelda Williams imitates her parents’ various endeavors in the film industry, and she also keeps her path open. Since launching Shrimp in 2018, she’s worked on a number of new projects, dividing her time between directing and acting. In 2019, she directed an episode of the series Dark/Web, while in 2020, she directed a film called Kappa Kappa Die. Both projects were horror genres, which Williams had previously expressed a deep interest in. She also worked on the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.
Now that we know about Zelda Williams’ budding career in the film industry, let’s take a look back at her early years. She was born on July 31, 1989 in New York, the eldest of two children Robin Williams and Marsha Garces Williams. She has a younger brother, Cody Williams, born in 1991, and a half-brother named Zach Williams, born in 1983, when Robin Williams married his first wife, Valerie Velardi.
Her name is an ode to Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda video game series, of which Robin Williams was a huge fan. This interest runs in the family, where Zelda Williams also plays a passionate role. In fact, the game franchise capitalized on the connection, with Zelda and Robin Williams appearing together in a Nintendo 3DS commercial in 2011, to advertise The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Later that year, she appeared in other press material for the game series, and was even the special host of the London Zelda Symphony Concert which celebrated the series’ 25th anniversary.
