A SPECIAL REUNION
IT’S been 25 years since Mrs Doubtfire hit the big screen, but the cast of the popular movie recall filming it – and working with late comedy legend ROBIN WILLIAMS – as if it were yesterday. In the film Robin plays a voice actor who disguises himself as a nanny so he can see his kids (MARA WILSON, LISA JAKUB and MATTHEW LAWRENCE) after his wife (SALLY FIELD) files for divorce and gets sole custody. Mara, Lisa and Matthew recently reunited with co-star PIERCE BROSNAN (who played their mom’s new boyfriend) on the Today show. The actors reminisced about working with the late comedian, saying it was hard to keep their composure around his quickfire ad-libbing. But they also recalled his wisdom and kindness.
“Robin was like a guiding source,” Matthew (38) said. “He’d just all of a sudden, out of the blue, look over and be like, ‘Don’t do drugs. They really messed up my brain. I’m serious. Don’t do them.’ That stuck with me.”
Lisa (39) credits the late comic for helping her deal with her lifelong anxiety. “He was open and honest with me, talking about his issues with addiction and depression. That was so powerful to me at 14.” Mara (31) recalls Robin being a constant performer, while Pierce (65) remembers the actor, who received a Golden Globe for his performance, as “deeply human, kind, generous, loving”.
The cast also opened up about the impact and legacy of the 1993 film, which won an Oscar for best make-up. “Before Mrs Doubtfire I think not a lot of movies dealt in a realistic way about divorce,” Lisa added. “It really showed there are different versions of a happy ending and that families might look different, people might live differently than you, but then there’s love when there’s acceptance.”
‘What drove him absolutely crazy is he could never make me laugh. He’d never break me up’