Robin Williams 'did a lot of work' with veterans, 'Mrs. Doubtfire' co-star reveals
Lisa Jakub, who played Williams' daughter Lydia in the 1993 comedy and now runs a veterans nonprofit called Mission Flexible, said she found out about the actor's commitment to former service members after working with him.
Lisa Jakub, who played Robin Williams’ oldest daughter in 1993’s "Mrs. Doubtfire," says the actor worked to get "local veterans" jobs on sets.
Jakub, who runs a military nonprofit, told Fox News Digital that she was "grateful" to have had him as her movie dad.
"Robin was everything you would hope Robin would be, and it’s so wonderful to think back on him now," Jakub said of her experience with the iconic comedian who died in 2014. She added that she was "grateful that I got to be in his presence, that I got to be working with him, that he was so kind to me."
Calling Williams "thoughtful and generous," she said he was also "probably one of the first people who ever really spoke to me super honestly about mental health. And he would talk to me about his struggles and the things that he went through. And it was the first time that I felt like, ‘Oh, I'm not a freak. I don't have to hide this about myself. This is just something that some of us have to deal with.’"
She said she only later found out that he also had a connection with veterans.
Robin Williams' "Mrs. Doubtfire" daughter, Lisa Jakub, says she's "grateful" she was able to work with the actor. (Vera Anderson/WireImage / Bobby Bank/Getty Images)
"So many people have told me that Robin did a lot of work with the veteran population as well, and that he always had production crews hire local veterans to be background actors or things like that on set, which is not something I ever knew about when I worked with him," Jakub explained, "but I also love that little connection as well."
Robin Williams entertaining troops in Iraq in 2003. (Lisa M. Zunzanyika/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)
WATCH: ROBIN WILLIAMS 'DID A LOT OF WORK' WITH VETERANS, 'MRS. DOUBTFIRE' CO-STAR REVEALS
Jakub, who founded Mission Flexible two years ago, said she started the program after having worked with people suffering from anxiety and depression for years and was invited to teach therapeutic writing at a veteran’s retreat in 2016.
"I just absolutely fell in love with the veteran community," she said. "I don’t know if I had ever talked to a veteran before I went and did that. I was so intimidated."
She said while she worried the retreat would be a "disaster," she "just learned so much about the veteran community, and I really saw on the retreat how powerful these mindfulness techniques can be, including therapeutic writing for people who are really struggling with post-traumatic stress."
"I am a total civilian!" she joked to Fox News Digital. "But what was interesting is, on one of my first veteran retreats, one of the vets asked me if there was anything I miss about working in the film industry."
She said she told the veteran that she was happy she had left the industry, but she did miss the "sense of connection on set," which is something shared by those in the military.
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Lisa Jakub, left, founded Mission Flexible two years ago. (Lisa Jakub/Mission Flexible)
"There is 90 percent of the veteran experience that I will never understand," she explained, "but I understand what it's like to miss that camaraderie, to miss your community. And so that's what I love that Mission Flexible is able to provide for them again, because that is honestly the most effective form of suicide prevention that I know of."
Mission Flexible offers four-day mindfulness retreats for veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress and other issues. Jakub said she had received a gift at the end of the very first retreat she ever attended that she keeps with her.
"So many people have told me that Robin did a lot of work with the veteran population as well, and that he always had production crews hire local veterans to be background actors or things like that on set, which is not something I ever knew about when I worked with him."
WATCH: 'MRS. DOUBTFIRE' STAR EXPLAINS HOW SHE ENDED UP FOUNDING VETERANS NONPROFIT MISSION FLEXIBLE
"One of the veterans came up to me. We were all saying goodbye. We were all leaving, and he took this memorial bracelet that I'm wearing off of his wrist and put it on mine," she told Fox News Digital, holding up her wrist. "It is a memorial bracelet that recognizes and honors the service of a friend of his who died in combat in 1993. I still get choked up every time I talk about it, and I am so honored to have this. And I wear it all the time."
She noted that receiving the bracelet was "the moment I realized that I wanted to devote myself to honoring those who were lost – by serving those who are still here."
Lisa Jakub with veterans on a Mission Flexible retreat. (Lisa Jakub/Mission Flexible)
Jakub, who, along with "Mrs. Doubtfire," starred in movies like "Independence Day" and "Beautician and the Beast" as a teen, decided to leave Hollywood when she was 22 to "figure out what I was really passionate about in life."
She left Los Angeles, got her GED because she had been working and hadn’t graduated from high school, "floundered for a while" and eventually went to college and wrote two books before founding Mission Flexible.
The now 45-year-old said she was scared when she left the industry, and people told her it was a "massive mistake" to walk away from being a working actor, "so the fact that I have found a life that feels purposeful, that feels like it's full of meaning, that feels like I can actually be of service, to steal a military term, but to be of service to other people is just it's such a joy."
A teenage Lisa Jakub at the "Mrs. Doubtfire" premiere in 1993. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Thinking back to her acting days, Jakub said that both Williams and Sally Field, who played the comedian's soon-to-be ex Miranda Hillard in "Mrs. Doubtfire," were like "parents" on set.
"They were so kind," she said, "Kids on set, it's a rough combination. It can be a really difficult place to be for a kid. And Robin and Sally were very aware of that, and they were constantly checking to see if we were OK, if we were rested, if we had time to play, if we needed anything. And that was just so incredible."
Sally Field starred alongside Robin Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire." (Getty Images)
She added that she and her "faux siblings" Matthew Lawrence and Mara Wilson "were and continue to be super close."
"To have Robin and Sally, who took extraordinary care of us, was something that didn't happen on all film sets. It really was kind of unusual to feel that completely protected and supported. And so that's something I will just always be so grateful for," she said.
Jakub also remembered being the "guinea pig" for the premise of the film – the idea that a father could believably disguise himself as an older British woman and fool his children – could work.
"Mrs. Doubtfire" cast from L-R: Matthew Lawrence, Lisa Jakub, Robin Williams, Mara Wilson and Sally Field. (Collection Christophel)
WATCH: 'MRS. DOUBTFIRE' STAR, WHO PLAYED ROBIN WILLIAMS' DAUGHTER, SAYS HE WAS 'EVERYTHING YOU WOULD HOPE’ HE’D BE
She said that one day they broke for lunch on set, and director "Chris Columbus introduced me to his mother, who was joining us for lunch. And she was very nice."
Unbeknownst to her, Columbus’ "mother" was actually Williams, made up as Mrs. Doubtfire, a getup Jakub hadn’t seen before.
"I'm 14 and I'm meeting my boss's mom, right?" she reminisced to Fox News Digital. "So, I'm trying to keep it together. I'm trying to be professional. I'm trying to like, make small talk. And eventually we found out that this was Robin, and this was the Mrs. Doubtfire makeup. And we were the guinea pigs. We were the test case, and we were suckers. We completely fell for it."
That’s when she realized for the first time, "'Oh, this movie might be OK.’" She explained that there had been concerns. "‘Are we just doing a bad rip-off of ‘Tootsie?’ Like, is this going to be believable at all that we would not recognize our father,’ but, yeah, we proved the point."
Robin Williams as "Mrs. Doubtfire." (20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)
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She called Mrs. Doubtfire’s believability a "testament to Robin's skill."
"He was incredible," she continued. "His voice, of course, the accent, but down to the mannerisms, down to the way he walked. He completely embodied Mrs. Doubtfire. There was nothing of Robin in that character, which, I think really brought this believability to a completely absurd plot."
Williams was also completely engrossed in the character when he was dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire on set.
"If the, say, camera crew was asking Robin to shift to his right a little bit, if they said, ‘Hey, Robin, will you shift to your right a little bit?’ He would not respond. If they said, ‘Mrs. D, please move to your right a little bit’ Robin would move. So, yeah, it was amazing to watch," she explained of his acting style.
While filming the scene in which Williams meets Field’s new boyfriend played by Pierce Brosnan for the first time, Jakub revealed that she almost messed up one of the most iconic lines in the film.
Sally Field and Pierce Brosnan in "Mrs. Doubtfire." Lisa Jakub said she almost messed up a scene between Brosnan and Robin Williams. (Blue Wolf Productions / Twentieth Century Fox)
"One of the things that was really challenging about being on set with Robin is the fact that you never knew where he was going to go with something, so I would often be just taken so off guard by something that he said," she explained of Williams’ improvisational style. "And I learned how to get pretty good at keeping a straight face and not cracking up. But I was there when he improvised the line where Pierce says, ‘Your accent is sort of muddled,' and Robin comes back with ‘So's your tan.’ And that moment like, it just came out of left field for me. And I thought it was so hysterical that I burst out laughing."
She said she was "immediately filled with shame because I thought, ‘Oh no, I have ruined this take, like, this is the one time that he did this.'"
But, she said, the sound department was able to cut out her laughter and save the take.
Robin Williams in a scene from the film "Mrs. Doubtfire," 1993. ( 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)
Robin Williams at the "Mrs. Doubtfire" premiere. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Reflecting back on her movie career, she said she’s amazed that she still gets recognized 30 years later and is grateful she was part of something "that still matters to people."
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"I think nostalgia is a beautiful thing," she added. "And sometimes when we're going through difficult times, it's helpful to feel that kind of comfort."
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