đ To generations of audiences, Robin Williams represented pure joy â a performer whose energy could instantly light up any room đâš Yet in a touching memory shared by Sally Field about filming Mrs. Doubtfire, fans are discovering a far more vulnerable side of the beloved actor đđ
The actors played a couple going through a split in the 1993 comedy.
Sally Field on May 3, and Robin Williams in 2013.Credit:Â Dominik Bindl/Getty; Ben Gabbe/Getty
The late Robin Williams was best known for making people laugh, but apparently not Sally Field, his costar in the 1993 movie Mrs. Doubtfire.
Field said she was the only person who wasnât cracking up and even ruining scenes, and âit drove him mad, actually.â
âBecause I would never laugh, ever,â the actress said Wednesday on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. âAnd everybody else was laughing and carrying on.â
Colbert asked if she had been too professional for that, but that wasnât it.
âIt wasnât funny,â Field said, to which the comedian enjoyed his own chuckle. âIt just wasnât funny.â
Another costar eventually managed to amuse the Steel Magnolias star.
âRobin was always trying something different to make me laugh. It was so unfunny. I canât begin to tell you,â Field said. âAnd then 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.â
Williamsâ response to her breaking up over Brosnanâs childish gag: âThatâs all it took?â
In the comedy, Field portrayed Miranda, the wife of Williamsâ character, Daniel, who never took anything seriously, so Miranda always felt like the bad guy while raising their three children and maintaining a career.
When they split, Daniel went undercover as an enchanting nanny, Mrs. Doubtfire, in order to spend time with the kids, who were played by Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, and Mara Wilson.
Brosnan appeared as Mirandaâs slick new suitor, Stuart.
Looking back on his own experience with Williams, Lawrence recalled in 2025 that he had a fantastic time filming with the Mork & Mindy alum. In particular, the birthday party scene when Miranda isnât home was âso much funâ to film, Lawrence said during a June 2025 appearance on his Brotherly Love podcast.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/sally-field-1-080824-e9635450a97c44d9bc5a18d842777e30.jpg)
âFirst of all, they asked me, âWhat would you like at your party?â And I said animals. I gave âem a list of music, and they just made it happen,â Lawrence said. âAnd then Robinâs like, âWeâre gonna jump on this table.â It was kind of just impromptu, âWeâre gonna jump on this table and dance right now,â and I was like, âYeah, heck yeah. I wanna dance with Robin right now.’â
Mrs. Doubtfire turned out to be a big hit, earning $441 million worldwide at the box office.
Williams went on to make audiences laugh or even cry in Hollywood film classics like The Birdcage, Night at the Museum, Death to Smoochy, and Good Will Hunting until his death in 2014.


