'Hook' Star Dante Basco Calls Robin Williams A Real-Life 'Genie'

Dante Basco has opened up about his experience working with Robin Williams, calling the late actor a "magical person" and a "genie."

The 46-year-old actor, who worked with Williams in the 1991 movie "Hook," told ScreenRant on Wednesday the latter was like a real-life genie on the sets, comparing him to the character in "Aladdin," for which he had lent his voice in 1992.

"Robin comes up all the time and rightfully so because he's just a magical person," he told the outlet. "The short answer's always like, 'Hey, man, Robin's the Genie.' He played the genie in Aladdin and he is the genie when you're around Robin Williams."

"He's so smart and so fast and so funny and so kind, and magic can happen and often does," he added. "So, I mean, in a nutshell, that's Robin Williams."

The official Twitter handle of the outlet also shared a photo of Williams, and captioned it, "Star of Steven Spielberg's 1991 adventure movie #Hook, Dante Basco, has shared an emotional memory of the late Robin Williams."

"He had a way of putting his arm around me and going ... 'You’re welcome. This is for you.' I’ll never forget him for that," Basco recalled.

Williams died on Aug. 14, 2014. He was last featured in the movie, "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb."

"Hook" was a live-action version of the 1953 animated movie, "Peter Pan." Steven Spielberg's directorial received mixed responses at that time.

The director admitted in 2018 he "felt like a fish out of water making Hook. I didn’t have confidence in the script. I had confidence in the first act and I had confidence in the epilogue. I didn’t have confidence in the body of it."

In another interview, Spielberg also confessed "the more insecure I felt about it, the bigger and more colorful the sets became."

In the movie, Williams played the lead character Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman portrayed Captain Hook. Spielberg's movie was a sequel of a novel, "Peter and Wendy," penned by J.M. Barrie. It revolved around adult Peter Pan, who forgot his childhood, following which Tinker Bell, played by Julia Roberts, helped him recall old memories.

In the work front, Basco will be next seen in a movie named, "Chocolate" and his other two movies - "Underdogs Rising" and "Patsy Lee & The Keepers of the 5 Kingdoms" - are currently under post-production.