Sally Field recently told Vanity Fair that Robin Williams made arrangements for her to leave the set of Mrs. Doubtfire when her father died during filming. Field hadn’t planned to halt production because of the personal matter, but Williams sensed something was wrong with his co-star and prompted director Chris Columbus to change the shooting order so the production could shoot around Field for a day.
“I’ve never told this story before,” Field said. “I was in the RV outside the courtroom where we were filming the divorce scene. My father had had a stroke a few years ago and was in a nursing home. I got a call from the doctor telling me that my father had died – a massive stroke. He asked if I wanted them to put him on the resuscitator. I said, ‘No, he didn’t want to. Just let him go. And please bend down and say, ‘Sally says goodbye.'”
“I was beside myself, of course,” Field continued. “I came on set and tried to act with all my might. I didn’t cry. Robin came over, pulled me off the set and asked, ‘Are you OK?'”
When Field finally told Williams about her father’s death, she remembered Williams’ response: “Oh my God, we have to get you out of here immediately.”
“And he made it happen – they revolved the rest of the day around me,” Field said. “I was able to go home, call my brother and arrange everything. That’s a side of Robin that people hardly knew: He was very sensitive and intuitive.”
Williams impacted the lives of many of his co-stars while filming “Mrs. Doubtfire.” Lisa Jakub, who was a teenager when she played the eldest daughter of Williams’ character in the film, told Fox News Digital earlier this year that Williams was the first person to speak openly with her about mental health issues when they worked together on “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
“He talked to me about his problems and the things he’s been through,” Jakub said. “And it was the first time I thought, ‘Oh, I’m not a freak. I don’t have to hide this. This is just something some of us have to deal with.'”
In Mrs. Doubtfire, Williams played a father who disguises himself as a housekeeper so he can work for his estranged wife and see his children. The film was the second highest-grossing film of 1993, grossing $441 million worldwide.
During a May interview on the Brotherly Love podcast, Jakub also recounted how Williams tried to help her when she was kicked out of high school because she took time off to film Mrs. Doubtfire.
“The amazing thing was that Robin saw that I was upset – he asked me what was wrong,” Jakub said. “He wrote a letter to my principal saying he wanted them to reconsider this decision. I’m just trying to continue my education and my career at the same time and if they could please support me in that. The principal got the letter, framed it, hung it in the office and didn’t ask me to come back. Amazing.”
To read more from Field, visit Vanity Fair’s website.
