Mara Wilson: Robin Williams Was Like a Dad

Mrs. Doubtfire actress reflects on her costar
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 19, 2014 9:04 AM CDT
Mara Wilson: Robin Williams Was Like a Dad
Mara Wilson in 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' via YouTube.   (YouTube/19877906)

Mara Wilson—aka Mrs. Doubtfire's youngest kid—is offering a heartfelt remembrance of a man who, to her and many others, felt a bit like a father. "Robin Williams, as I knew him, was warm, gentle, expressive, nurturing, and brilliant," she writes on her blog, via the Daily Beast. And of course, extremely funny: He'd "do anything to make me and the other kids laugh," and so much of the Mrs. Doubtfire dialogue was based on his improvisation that he deserved a writing credit. "He seemed to know instinctively what we would find funny."

Wilson hadn't wanted to participate in a Mrs. Doubtfire 2, but she "ended up coming off a lot more brusque and dismissive" than she'd meant to, she writes; she had hoped to apologize to Williams. "It hurts to know I can’t." She also offers some thoughts on mental illness: "I am afraid people will romanticize what Robin went through. Please don’t romanticize mental anguish … To focus on someone’s pain instead of their accomplishments is an insult to them." Wilson closes with a nod to her most famous Doubtfire line. "It is remarkable how many lives Robin touched," she notes. "I suppose—could I really end this any other way?—we’re all his goddamn kids, too." Click for her full column. (More Mara Wilson stories.)

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