According to 'Mrs. Doubfire' star Lisa Jakub, the late actor penned a letter to her school to ask them to keep her as a student after they considered to drop her.
- Jun 1, 2021
AceShowbiz - Robin Williams wrote a letter on behalf of his young "Mrs. Doubtfire" co-star Lisa Jakub when her school wanted to drop her.
Making the film was a dream come true for the then-14 year old, until her high school sent her a letter explaining it was "too difficult" to keep her on as a student.
"One day on set, I was very upset, because I had received this letter from my high school saying that it was too difficult for them to work long-distance with me and that I just shouldn't come back to high school," Jakub told Yahoo Entertainment.
"I had been working with an on-set tutor and sending my work back to the high school, but that just wasn't working for them anymore, so they just kinda broke up with me."
"I was really upset about that, and Robin, just being perceptive and kindhearted, reached out and was like, 'Hey, what's going on?' I told him what happened, and he wrote a letter to my school asking them to please reconsider. Would they work with me in trying to balance my education and my career? And he didn't think that that was fair."
The high school's officials framed the letter, but Jakub did not return to school.
"What I love about that story and what I love about Robin, it's just the fact that he would do that for someone, that he would go out of his way, that he would take the time to realise that this would be important," Jakub said. "And even if it didn't work, somebody needed to stand up, and he did that for me. I don't know if he ever knew how massive that was and how much I felt like he was in my corner. And how much that really shifted things for me and made me think about, 'What is the impact I wanna make in the world?' "
She also shared that Williams, who died in August 2014, was "very open and honest" with her about his issues with anxiety and depression, "I was able to share with him that anxiety was something that I struggled with, and he would talk to me about mental health issues in a way that 14 year olds aren't usually used to adults being really open about those sorts of personal experiences with them (sic)."
Jakub, who also co-starred in "Independence Day", stopped acting in 2000 and is now a mental wellness coach. "I lead workshops on mental wellness, on mindfulness, on ways to use yoga and meditation as tools for anxiety, depression," she said. "And I feel like that is one of the ways I'm kind of paying forward some of the things that Robin taught me by being so open."
