Cleavant Derricks – Working with Robin Williams
Long before he became Rembrandt Brown on Sliders, before his Tony Award-winning turn in Dreamgirls, Cleavant Derricks had an experience that would shape his understanding of comedy, humanity, and the art of performance. He worked with Robin Williams on the 1984 film Moscow on the Hudson, a comedy-drama that showcased Williams’ remarkable range while telling a story of immigration, culture shock, and the search for home in America.
The Film That Went Deep
Moscow on the Hudson wasn’t a typical Robin Williams vehicle. While the comedian was known for his manic energy and improvisational genius on shows like Mork & Mindy, this film asked him to do something different: play a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a tour in New York City. It was funny, yes, but it was also heartbreaking, political, and deeply human.
The film was directed by Paul Mazursky, known for his character-driven comedies and his ability to blend humor with social commentary. Mazursky surrounded Williams with a strong ensemble cast, creating a rich tapestry of New York characters navigating life, culture, and identity in the 1980s.
Derricks was part of that ensemble, and working on the film gave him a front-row seat to Williams’ process – how he could be wildly improvisational one moment and deeply focused the next, how he used comedy to illuminate truth rather than escape it, how he connected with his fellow actors with generosity and presence.
Robin Williams: The Actor
By 1984, Robin Williams was transitioning from television comedy star to serious film actor. He’d had success with Popeye and The World According to Garp, but Moscow on the Hudson represented something new: a lead role in a film with real dramatic weight, a character study wrapped in comedy rather than the other way around.
What struck many who worked with Williams – and Derricks would have experienced this firsthand – was the contrast between his public persona and his working method. Yes, he could improvise brilliantly, could riff and play and find comedy in any moment. But he was also intensely prepared, deeply committed to the emotional truth of his character, and remarkably generous with his fellow actors.
Williams’s performance as Vladimir Ivanoff required him to speak Russian, play the saxophone, navigate the emotional complexity of leaving everything behind for an uncertain future, and find humor in culture shock without making it cheap. It was a high-wire act, and Williams pulled it off with grace.
The Ensemble Experience
What made Moscow on the Hudson special was its ensemble nature. Williams was the star, but the film succeeded because of the richness of the supporting characters – the immigrant community, the New York locals, the family that takes Vladimir in. Everyone in the cast had to bring authenticity and depth to their roles.
For an actor like Derricks, trained in theater where ensemble work is fundamental, this approach would have felt natural. Theater teaches you that every role matters, that the show succeeds or fails based on everyone’s commitment, not just the star’s performance. That ethos carried into Moscow on the Hudson, creating a film that felt lived-in and real.
Working with Williams in that context meant being part of a genuine collaboration. Williams was known for lifting up his fellow actors, for listening as well as performing, for creating an atmosphere where everyone could do their best work. He didn’t hog the spotlight; he shared it, understanding that his performance was better when surrounded by strong work from everyone else.
Comedy as Connection
One thing that both Williams and Derricks understood deeply was that comedy isn’t just about getting laughs – it’s about connection. Williams used humor to break down barriers, to create intimacy, to say true things that might be too painful to say straight. His improvisation wasn’t showboating; it was a form of empathy, a way of meeting people where they were and taking them somewhere new.
Derricks, with his background in musical theater and his understanding of performance as communication, would have recognized this in Williams. When Rembrandt Brown used humor on Sliders to defuse tension or cope with fear, when Derricks wrote songs that used emotion to convey what dialogue couldn’t, he was working from the same playbook.
Both men understood that entertainment isn’t frivolous – it’s essential. It’s how we process pain, how we find joy, how we connect with each other across differences of culture, language, and experience. Moscow on the Hudson was about that at its core: how we find common humanity in a world of barriers.
The Film’s Legacy
Moscow on the Hudson received positive reviews and has endured as one of Williams’s most interesting early films. It showed audiences that he could do more than frantic comedy, that he had depth and range and the ability to anchor a film with emotional truth. For many critics and fans, it was the first glimpse of the actor who would later give powerful dramatic performances in films like Good Morning, Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, The Fisher King, and Good Will Hunting.
The film also captured a specific moment in American culture – the Cold War era, the immigrant experience, the texture of New York City in the 1980s. Watching it now is like looking at a time capsule, but the themes remain resonant: What does it mean to leave home? How do we build new lives in strange places? What do we give up, and what do we gain?
For Derricks, who would later play a character lost across parallel Earths for five seasons on Sliders, these themes probably resonated deeply. Rembrandt Brown was, in his own way, an immigrant – displaced from his home world, navigating strange cultures, trying to find his way back while building connections wherever he landed.
Lessons Carried Forward
Working with Robin Williams on Moscow on the Hudson would have taught Derricks valuable lessons that he carried throughout his career:
The power of preparation: Williams’s improvisational genius was built on a foundation of intense preparation. He knew his character inside and out, which gave him the freedom to play.
The importance of generosity: Great actors lift up everyone around them. Williams’s generosity with his fellow cast members created better performances from everyone.
Comedy as craft: Humor isn’t just natural talent—it’s a skill that can be honed, a tool that can be wielded with precision and purpose.
Emotional truth: No matter how funny a moment is, it has to come from real emotion, real character, real stakes.
When Derricks later brought humor to Rembrandt Brown, when he insisted that the character’s comedy had to serve the emotional story, when he worked to make sure his music meant something – all of that was built on lessons learned from experiences like working with Williams.
Two Artists, One Understanding
In many ways, Robin Williams and Cleavant Derricks were similar artists. Both came from performance backgrounds where training and craft mattered – Williams from Juilliard, Derricks from Broadway. Both understood that entertaining an audience was serious business, requiring discipline and commitment. Both could move seamlessly between comedy and drama, understanding that they weren’t opposites but different aspects of the same truth.
Both men also understood the loneliness that can come with being a performer. Williams struggled with depression throughout his life, using comedy as both shield and sword. Derricks, reflecting on his career years later, spoke about the challenges facing minority actors in Hollywood, the constant hustle, the uncertainty. Performance could be joyful, but it could also be isolating.
Working together on Moscow on the Hudson, even briefly, created a connection between two artists who understood what it meant to give yourself to your work, to use your talent in service of something larger than yourself.
Remembering Robin
When Robin Williams passed away in 2014, the entertainment world mourned the loss of a singular talent. Tributes poured in from fellow actors, directors, comedians, and fans who had been touched by his work. Williams’s death sparked conversations about depression, mental health, and the hidden struggles that can lurk behind even the brightest public personas.
For those who had worked with Williams, like Derricks, the loss was personal. They had seen not just the public Robin Williams – the comedian, the actor, the whirlwind of energy – but the private man: thoughtful, kind, struggling with his own demons while bringing joy to millions.
The experience of working with Williams on Moscow on the Hudson remained a touchstone in Derricks’ career – a reminder of what great film acting could be, of how humor and heart could combine to tell important stories, of the magic that happened when talented people came together in service of something meaningful.
The Immigrant Story
Both Moscow on the Hudson and Sliders, in their different ways, told immigrant stories. Vladimir Ivanoff came to America and had to learn new customs, new language, new ways of being. Rembrandt Brown slid to parallel Earths and faced the same challenges – adapting to new cultures, navigating unfamiliar rules, trying to find home in strange places.
The empathy required to tell these stories well – the understanding that displacement is both loss and opportunity, that maintaining identity while embracing change is a constant negotiation – was something both Williams and Derricks brought to their work.
Moscow on the Hudson asked: What does America promise? What does it deliver? How do we maintain who we are while becoming something new? These weren’t easy questions, and the film didn’t offer easy answers. But it treated its characters with dignity and humor, acknowledging both the pain and the possibility of transformation.
Years later, Sliders would ask similar questions across infinite Earths. And Derricks, carrying lessons learned from working with artists like Robin Williams, brought the same empathy and humanity to Rembrandt Brown.
A Lasting Influence
Though Moscow on the Hudson wasn’t Derricks’ most prominent film role, the experience of working with Robin Williams and Paul Mazursky, of being part of an ensemble that took comedy seriously and drama lightly, influenced how he approached his craft.
When he later found himself as the comedic anchor of Sliders, carrying the show through cast changes and creative shifts, he understood what that responsibility meant. Like Williams in Moscow on the Hudson, he had to be funny without sacrificing emotional truth. He had to keep the tone light while honoring the stakes. He had to make his character’s journey matter.
“You never know,” Derricks said of his career path. “My walk of life in this business has always been, I’m just walking…and it just happens.” Working with Robin Williams happened. The lessons learned, the example set, the standard of excellence demonstrated – all of that stayed with Derricks, informing his work for decades to come.
The Art of Connection
What Robin Williams and Cleavant Derricks shared, ultimately, was an understanding that performance is about connection. It’s about reaching across the divide between performer and audience, between one character and another, between different cultures and experiences, and finding the common humanity that binds us all.
Williams did it with his improvisational genius, his willingness to be vulnerable, his ability to find both comedy and tragedy in the simplest moments. Derricks did it with his music, his warmth, his understanding that even in a science fiction show about parallel dimensions, the thing that mattered most was the emotional journey of the characters.
Working together on Moscow on the Hudson, even briefly, created a moment of artistic connection that would resonate through both their careers. For Derricks, it was a masterclass in film acting, in generosity, in the marriage of comedy and heart that would define his best work.
And for those of us who’ve enjoyed both Williams’ brilliant career and Derricks’ remarkable work, it’s a reminder that art is always collaborative, always about connection, always about finding ways to reach each other across whatever boundaries separate us – whether those boundaries are cultural, dimensional, or simply human.
