Sally Field revealed how she managed to irk Robin Williams, her Mrs. Doubtfire co-star, on set.
The 79-year-old actress told late-night host Stephen Colbert that she drove Williams “mad” while filming the 1993 cult comedy. Field said she was the only one who didn’t find everything funny and break during scenes. “Everyone would laugh, but me,” she said.
“It drove him mad, actually,” she confessed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Wednesday.
“Because I would never laugh, ever,” the two-time Academy Award winner said. “And everybody else was laughing and carrying on.”
Colbert asked if she was too professional to crack up during filming, but Field responded, “It wasn’t funny. It just wasn’t funny.”
Field says another co-star finally got her to break. “Robin was always trying something different to make me laugh. It was so unfunny. I can’t begin to tell you,” Field said. “And then Pierce—wonderful Pierce Brosnan—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.”
“How did Robin take that?” Colbert asked, chuckling.
“He said, ‘That’s all it took?!’” Field responded, adding that she laughed so hard her makeup had to be redone.
Field, Williams, and Brosnan appeared together in Christopher Columbus’s Mrs. Doubtfire, which won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. For his performance as Field’s character’s ex-husband who disguises himself as a nanny, Williams won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
The legendary Williams died by suicide in August 2014, at the age of 63. His co-stars and colleagues continue to remember him, with Ethan Hawke saying in December, “There aren’t two of him.”
Field has previously spoken about her bond with Williams on set. In 2024, she told Vanity Fair that Williams made arrangements for her to leave filming after her father died.
“I was of course beside myself,” Field said. “I came on the set trying with all my might to act. I wasn’t crying. Robin came over, pulled me out of the set, and asked, ‘Are you OK?’” When she told Williams what happened, he responded, “Oh my God, we need to get you out here right now.”
“And he made it happen—they shot around me the rest of the day,” Field said. “I could go back to my house, call my brother and make arrangements. It’s a side of Robin that people rarely knew: He was very sensitive and intuitive.”
If you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.
