Sally Field has revealed she drove Robin Williams mad on the set of their 1993 comedy Mrs Doubtfire by never laughing at his work. The Chris Columbus-directed family classic starred Williams as an actor who disguises himself as an elderly Scottish female housekeeper to continue seeing his children after he and his wife, played by Field, decide to separate.
During an appearance this week on Stephen Colbert's US talk show, Field recalled that she did not find Williams funny while working with him on the film, and that it bothered him. "I would never laugh, ever," Field said. "And everybody else was laughing and carrying on." She said Williams prided himself on making his colleagues laugh, which only increased his frustration. "It drove him mad, actually," Field added. "It wasn't funny. It just wasn't funny. Robin was always trying something different to make me laugh. It was so unfunny. I can't begin to tell you."
In fact, the first time she did laugh on the set of Mrs Doubtfire was due to one of their co-stars: Pierce Brosnan, who played the wealthy Irishman fighting for her character's affections. "Pierce – wonderful Pierce Brosnan – we were sitting at a table at the restaurant, and he made a fart noise on his arm," Field remembered. "And I was gone. That was it."
Despite their early tension, Field has always praised Williams as a co-star and as an individual, this week remembering another moment on the Mrs Doubtfire set in which he ordered she be sent home rather than work during a moment of personal grief. During the filming of a pivotal scene in which she and Williams' characters fight for custody of their children, Field learned that her father had died.
"[Robin] pulled me over to the side asking if I was all right," she told People Magazine. "And I started to cry. I said that my father just died … Robin turned around and [told everyone] 'that's it for the day, guys! We're wrapped here. You can get a few shots at the kids and maybe one of Mrs Doubtfire, but Ms Field's going home.' And he walked me out. That was Robin."
Williams, whose other credits included classics including Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting and Aladdin, died in 2014 at the age of 63. His health had declined in the years before his death by suicide, following a misdiagnosis of Parkinson's disease. It was only revealed following Williams's autopsy that he was experiencing Lewy body dementia, an incurable brain disease.
Field is currently promoting a new Netflix film titled Remarkably Bright Creatures, in which her character bonds with an octopus given voice by British actor Alfred Molina. In her review of the film, The Independent's film critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote that the movie lags once the animal "is happily disappeared from the narrative for a good chunk of the film's runtime."
