At the beginning of the year, we spoke to you about Jumanji 2 and the “idiotic” scenario which had been envisaged for the sequel to the film with Robin Williams. And even more recently, it is another of his cult films which has recently been talked about again, since the casting of Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) had recently reunited, allowing us to discover this touching anecdote concerning the late Hollywood star.
Robin Williams’ support for the new generation
Robin Williams, who died in 2014 at the age of 63, was a renowned actor in the Hollywood industryknown in particular for Will Hunting (1997), thanks to which he won the Oscar for best supporting actor, but also for Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Jumanji (1995) or even Insomnia (2002), without forgetting the saga Night at the Museum as well as Mrs. Doubtfire, to recite nobody else but them.
And precisely, more than 30 years after the release of Chris Columbus’ film, the casting of Mrs. Doubtfire came together in the podcast Brotherly Love. We could thus find the actors who played the children of Daniel Hillard, the character played by Williams in the film, namely Matthew Lawrence, Mara Wilson and Lisa Jakub. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Jakub took this opportunity to share this moving anecdote about Williams, who had stood up for him about his upbringing. Lydia Hillard’s interpreter then declared:
I got kicked out of high school in Doubtfire. I am canadian. I went to high school in Canada, then I left for four months to shoot the film. We were going to set up a system, before the Internet came along, where I would mail my homework to school. That’s what we did for a while.
As Matt remembers well, we had tutoring, three hours of study a day on set. We were filming for a few months and my school in Canada sent me a note saying ‘This isn’t working for us anymore, don’t come back.’ […] I was devastated. It broke my heart, because I had a very unusual life and this was the only normal thing.
It was really difficult. The most surprising thing was that Robin saw that I was upset, and he asked me what was going on. He wrote a letter to my principal to tell him that he wanted him to reconsider his decision, that I was simply trying to continue my studies and my career at the same time, and that they could support me in this process. The principal received the letter, framed it, posted it in his office and did not ask me to return.
Lawrence also revealed on the show that Williams had also helped him continue his studiesthe young American actor having had a similar journey to that of Jakub.
And to learn more about Robin Williams, discover this statement from his daughter Zelda, who revealed that this film with her father is her favorite.
