a Mrs. Doubtfire star shares what time Robin Williams gave her best, both on and off screen.
In a recent episode of the Brother love podcastnext to her Mrs. Doubtfire co-stars Mara Wilson and Matthew Lawrence Lisa Jakub, who played Lydia Hillard in the hit 1993 comedy, recalled Williams defending her over an issue at her school.
Jakub said she was still attending high school in Canada while away for four months filming Mrs. Doubtfire. “We were going to set up a pre-internet system, with which I would email my school work back and forth to the school. We did that for a while,” she explains.
“As Matt remembers, we had tutoring and three hours of schoolwork on set every day,” the actress continued. “We were a few months into filming and my school in Canada sent a note saying, 'This isn't working for us anymore, don't come back.' Yes, 9th grade. I was devastated. It was just so heartbreaking because I had a life that was very unusual and that was the only normal thing.”
However, Jakub once said to Williams: who died in 2014saw the impact it had on her, he took matters into his own hands.
“It was very difficult,” she remembers. “The amazing thing was that Robin saw that I was upset – he asked me what was wrong. He wrote a letter to my director saying that he wanted them to reconsider this decision and that I was just trying to continue my education and career at the same time, and could they please support me in this.
Although she greatly appreciated Williams' efforts, they were ultimately unsuccessful. “The director received the letter, framed it, hung it in the office and did not ask me to come back,” Jakub added. “Astonishing.”
Lawrence later added during the Mrs. Doubtfire reunion on the podcast that Williams also wrote a letter of recommendation to help him get into the University of Southern California.
In the Chris Columbus-directed film, Jakub, Lawrence and Wilson play a trio of siblings. The film follows Williams, who disguises himself as a female housekeeper so he can spend time with his children who are being held in the custody of his former wife, Miranda Hillard (Sally Field).
Mrs. Doubtfire Not only was it a box office success, but it also won the Oscar for Best Makeup at the 1994 Academy Awards.