No, There Is Not an NC-17 Cut of Mrs. Doubtfire

After four years of online campaigning, Snyder Cut diehards saw their dreams realized this weekend with HBO Max’s debut of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The realization of something most of us never saw happening has been surprising and delightful, with Snyder finally getting to finish the film he always wanted to make. However, the successful Snyder Cut campaign has now emboldened film fans to start demanding director cuts of several movies. But it’s the Mrs. Doubtfire director’s cut aka the Columbus Cut, that has set the internet ablaze.

This all started with a viral tweet from Film Facts, which alleges that, thanks to Robin Williams’ ad-libbing, there are multiple cuts of Mrs. Doubtfire rated PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. The tweet references a 2015 Yahoo! Entertainment interview with the film’s director Christopher Columbus.

While filming 'Mrs. Doubtfire' (1993), Robin Williams improvised so much that there were PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 cuts of the film pic.twitter.com/vjYUCmyrj2

— Film Facts 🎬 (@factsonfiIm) March 18, 2021

The tweet was backed up by screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer, who tweeted about the “dirty dailies”, i.e. footage of Williams improvising dirtier jokes while shooting. It’s easy to believe, given that Williams was a brilliant comedian and improviser.

Just to clarify: I remember the dirty dailies. I can't confirm if there's an entire cut.

— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) March 19, 2021

Actress and author Mara Wilson also weighed in on the rumors via Twitter:

He didn’t say any of the blue stuff around me, but I know he said it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was material for an R rating. NC-17? No way. https://t.co/Nubrchc0vl

— Mara “Get Rid of the Nazis” Wilson (@MaraWilson) March 20, 2021

An R-rated cut I could totally see existing. But an NC-17 cut? Absolutely ridiculous. Still, it didn’t stop the internet hive mind from wondering what an NC-17 Mrs. Doubtfire would entail. The results are, predictably, hilarious:

let mrs. doubtfire fuck https://t.co/LXFrfmwL5k

— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) March 19, 2021

I am WAY more interested in the NC-17 Mrs Doubtfire cut than the Snyder Cut https://t.co/xIdeM3L1kB

— Ryan Catanese (@rcatanese) March 19, 2021

Why have we wasted all this time talking about this dumb Snyder cut when a NC-17 cut of Mrs. Doubtfire exists. Give us what we want https://t.co/VZHYknekgc

— Cody Tapp (@codybtapp) March 19, 2021

Sorry, I am still stuck on people pretending to believe there is an NC-17 cut of Mrs. Doubtfire based on language.

— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) March 19, 2021

If Daniel from Mrs. Doubtfire looked at a different newspaper headline… pic.twitter.com/a1J7GLYlf7

— Max Grossman (@GrossmanMax) March 19, 2021

There's a 25-minute scene of Mrs. Doubtfire fucking a broom to an Aerosmith song https://t.co/IAdpjFIePT

— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) March 19, 2021

Luckily, Columbus quickly squashed rumors of an NC-17 cut of the family film. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly he said “He [Williams] would sometimes go into territory that wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG-13 movie, but certainly appropriate and hilariously funny for an R-rated film. I only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie.”

Columbus added that the film released was his official cut, and he’s completely satisfied with the Mrs. Doubtfire we all know and love. “I would be open to maybe doing a documentary about the making of the film, and enabling people to see certain scenes re-edited in an R-rated version,” Columbus says. “The problem is, I don’t recall most of it. I only know what’s in the movie at this point because it’s been a long time. But I do remember it was outrageously funny material.”

It’s probably a good call not to release an R-rated cut of the film. Given the story themes, I’m sure many of the jokes would be problematic at best, and outright transphobic at worst. And that’s not a knock at Williams, but at comedy’s obsession with transphobia at the time. After all, the other massive comedy hit of the early 90s was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a film that hinges on transphobia.

I have a feeling that an R or NC-17 cut of "Mrs. Doubtfire" would probably be the most transphobic movie ever released. https://t.co/cEVNCnidvm

— Faith (@RoseOfWindsong) March 19, 2021

Some things are better left in the 90s.

(via Entertainment Weekly, featured image: 20th Century Fox)

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