The real Hunter "Patch" Adams -- the West Virginia doctor who treats the uninsured -- seems like the perfect role for the historically hyper Robin Williams, who portrays the M.D.'s life as a med student in "Patch Adams" (opening Friday). But when playing the 53-year-old doctor who believes in healing through laughter, favors a handlebar mustache and Leroy Neiman-esque colorful shirts, and named his son Atomic Zagnut, Williams found he had to tone his character down. "(Patch and I) have this connection, like Siamese twins joined at the shtick," Williams tells EW Online. "But the truth is, I am not subdued, but Patch is in many ways much more outrageous than my character is in this film."

"Patch Adams" gives Williams plenty of wacky time (the poster image of him sporting a red nose made out of an enema bulb says it all), but it also gives him a chance to flex the sensitive muscles that helped win him an Academy Award last year for "Good Will Hunting." Although Williams is notorious for cracking up the cast and crew on his sets, during serious scenes the laughter dies. "You have this baseline anxiety when you're playing this tense emotional scene where you can't get out of it," says Williams. "You have this serious face and people know and just go, 'Later.' No, it's not Mr. Riff. Method Boy is here."

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