'Mrs. Doubtfire' Star Shares How Robin Williams Helped Her Grieve a Loss
Mrs. Doubtfire featured an all-star cast of actors including Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, and Harvey Fierstein. And while hard work is an essential component in every successful movie, Williams ensured that his co-stars didn't push themselves past their limits.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Oscar-winning actress Sally Field looked back on her time working with Williams on the beloved 1993 movie. When she lost her father during filming one day, Williams ensured she was able to properly take time to grieve rather than push through.
"I was in the camper outside of the courtroom where we were shooting the divorce scene. My father had a stroke a couple of years before, and was in a nursing facility. I got a phone call from the doctor saying my father had passed—a massive stroke. He asked if I wanted them to put him on the resuscitator. I said, 'No, he did not want that. Just let him go. And please lean down and say, "Sally says goodbye,"'" she recounted.
“I was of course beside myself," she continued. "I came on the set trying with all my might to act. I wasn’t crying. Robin came over, pulled me out of the set, and asked, ‘Are you okay?'"
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She at first denied anything was wrong to him before confessing that her father had just died. Without missing a beat, Williams sprang into action. "'Oh my God, we need to get you out here right now,'" she remembered the actor saying.
"And he made it happen—they shot around me the rest of the day," she concluded. “I could go back to my house, call my brother, and make arrangements. It’s a side of Robin that people rarely knew: He was very sensitive and intuitive."