Did you know that for Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams’s refusal to work with the movie’s original director caused the production to be shut down and the original set burned? It was supposed to be directed by Jeff Kanew, who also did Revenge of the Nerds. But Williams didn’t want to work with him. The studio wanted Williams more and Kanew was eventually replaced with Peter Weir who would go on to direct The Truman Show. Once Williams arrived on set, he was initially uncomfortable with the role until he started improvising. Roughly a fifth of what he performed in the movie was improvised, including his riff on Marlon Brando and John Wayne doing Shakespeare. This improvisation led to conflict with Ethan Hawke who had studied acting and wanted to perform seriously. Hawke thought Williams hated him during the production and later said that the more Hawke didn’t laugh and played it straight, the more Williams laid into him. The movie was going to be shot in Rome, Georgia, but they wanted snow on the ground for authenticity and fake snow is expensive, so they relocated to Delaware. The cave where the society meets was a set piece made of latex, but it was based on the real location of Wolf Cave in Delaware.