[Anaesthesia]

A reply on another thread made me think about this.

Does anyone do it? Random acts of kindness / doing something for someone that you don't want to be paid back, you just want that person to do something randomly nice for someone else.

There was a Kevin Spacey film about this some years back; it affected me to the extent I try to do it whenever the opportunity presents.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/

[Ammi]

..Anaesthesia, I posted this in his remembrance thread but I thought I'd post it here as well because this really was a pay it forward guy which is so rare I think...


“Years ago I learned a very cool thing about Robin Williams, and I couldn’t watch a movie of his afterward without thinking of it. I never actually booked Robin Williams for an event, but I came close enough that his office sent over his rider.

For those outside of the entertainment industry, a rider lists out an artist’s specific personal and technical needs for hosting them for an event- anything from bottled water and their green room to sound and lighting requirements. You can learn a lot about a person from their rider. This is where rocks bands list their requirement for green M&Ms (which is actually a surprisingly smart thing to do).

This is also where a famous environmentalist requires a large gas-guzzling private jet to fly to the event city, but then requires an electric or hybrid car to take said environmentalist to the event venue when in view of the public.

When I got Robin Williams’ rider, I was very surprised by what I found. He actually had a requirement that for every single event or film he did, the company hiring him also had to hire a certain number of homeless people and put them to work.

I never watched a Robin Williams movie the same way after that. I’m sure that on his own time and with his own money, he was working with these people in need, but he’d also decided to use his clout as an entertainer to make sure that production companies and event planners also learned the value of giving people a chance to work their way back.

I wonder how many production companies continued the practice into their next non-Robin Williams project, as well as how many people got a chance at a job and the pride of earning an income, even temporarily, from his actions.

He was a great multiplier of his impact. Let’s hope that impact lives on without him. Thanks, Robin Williams- not just for laughs, but also for a cool example.”

sauce: www.brianlord.org

TL;DR: Robin Williams wouldn't work on a film or event unless they employed some homeless people during it.