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Sally Field has recalled how Robin Williams helped her after learning about her father’s death while they were filming for Mrs Doubtfire.
Speaking to Vanity Fair on the 10th anniversary of the actor’s death, Field shared the touching story that took place while they were making the 1993 film, describing how Williams, who died by suicide in 2014, convinced production to change the order of filming so she could leave to make arrangements.
“I never shared this story before. I was in the camper outside of the courtroom where we were shooting the divorce scene,” Field said.
“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.’ I was, of course, beside myself.”
Williams sensed something was off after Field returned to the set.
“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?’ ‘Yes, why?’
“‘I don’t know, just thought that.’ ‘No, I’m not, Robin. My father just passed.’ ‘Oh my God, we need to get you out here right now.’
“And he made it happen. They shot around me the rest of the day. 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.”
In Mrs Doubtfire, Williams played a divorced father who invents a cross-dressing alter-ego in a bid to covertly spend more time with his children. Field played his ex-wife Miranda Hillard.
Earlier this year, child star Lisa Jakub shared how Williams wrote a letter to her headteacher after she was expelled while filming, echoing what Field said about his empathy.
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“I got thrown out of high school on Doubtfire,” Jakub, now 45, told the Brotherly Love podcast.
“We were a couple of months into filming, and my school in Canada sent a note saying ‘this isn’t working for us anymore, don’t come back.’
“It was just so heartbreaking, because I had this life that was very unusual, and that was the one normal thing.
“The amazing thing was Robin saw that I was upset – he asked me what was going on. He wrote a letter to my principal saying that he wanted them to rethink this decision and that I was just trying to pursue my education and career at the same time, and could they please support me in this.
“The principal got the letter, framed the letter, put it up in the office, and didn’t ask me to come back. Amazing.”
