Sally Field has a confession about her time on the set of “Mrs. Doubtfire” â and it might surprise a few people. The Academy Award-winning actress stopped by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday and shared warm memories of the late Robin Williams.
Robin Williams Kept Trying and Kept Failing to Crack Her Up
One of the most gifted comedic minds Hollywood has ever seen could never once make her laugh during filming. Not even close.
“Because I would never laugh, ever,” Field said. “And everybody else was laughing and carrying on.”
She was, by her own account, the odd one out on a set that was otherwise in constant stitches.
Sally Field Says She Was the Only One Not Laughing on Set
Released in 1993, “Mrs. Doubtfire” became one of the most beloved comedies of its era, earning $441 million worldwide at the box office, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Williams played Daniel, a father who disguises himself as a British nanny to stay close to his children after a painful divorce from Miranda, the character Field portrayed.
While the rest of the cast and crew were apparently doubling over between takes, Field remained unmoved. And that, she said, drove her costar absolutely up the wall.
“It drove him mad, actually,” she recalled.
When Colbert suggested she may have simply been too focused on the work, Field was quick to set the record straight.
“It wasn’t funny,” she said flatly. “It just wasn’t funny.”
To his credit, Williams never stopped trying. Field described how he would constantly switch up his approach, pulling out new material between scenes in hopes of finally breaking her composure.
“Robin was always trying something different to make me laugh. It was so unfunny. I can’t begin to tell you,” she said.
For anyone who knew Williams’ reputation on set, it was practically unthinkable.
The man behind “Mork & Mindy,” “Good Will Hunting” and “The Birdcage” was legendary for turning any room into a comedy club.
Pierce Brosnan Did What Robin Williams Could Not
Then came Pierce Brosnan.
The Irish actor, who played Miranda’s charming new love interest, Stuart, turned out to be the unlikely hero of the whole story. After all of Williams’ creative efforts, it wasn’t a perfectly timed joke or an improvised bit that finally got Field.
“Pierce â wonderful Pierce Brosnan â we were sitting at a table at the restaurant, and he made a fart noise on his arm. And I was gone. That was it,” Field said, laughing at the memory.
Williams, who had poured weeks of energy into cracking her up, could only respond with equal parts disbelief and delight. “That’s all it took?” he said.
Matthew Lawrence Looks Back on Filming With Robin Williams
“First of all, they asked me, ‘What would you like at your party?’ And I said animals. I gave ’em a list of music, and they just made it happen,” he recalled.
“And then Robin’s like, ‘We’re gonna jump on this table.’ It was kind of just impromptu, ‘We’re gonna jump on this table and dance right now,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, heck yeah. I wanna dance with Robin right now.’”
Williams passed away in August 2014. But more than a decade later, the people who got to work beside him are still telling his stories: still laughing, still grateful and still clearly missing the man who made every room a little brighter just by walking into it.
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