Robin Williams’ lesson to a ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ child star off set

A former child actor who featured alongside Robin Williams in a hit 90s movie has looked back on the impact of working with the late Oscar winner - declaring he’ll “never forget” the advice the “brilliant” Williams gave him.

Matthew Lawrence, then 13, appeared as Williams’ screen son in 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire, which was among the year’s highest-grossing films.

Based on Anne Fine’s 1987 Madame Doubtfire, the movie starred Williams as Daniel Hillard, a divorced man who poses as a female nanny so he can spend more time with his children, having lost custody to his ex-wife.

“The most brilliant artist I’ve ever worked with”

Lawrence, who played Daniel’s son Christopher, told a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that Williams taught him the “type of compassion you need to have for people” and not to “judge until you walk in someone else’s shoes.”

Lawrence added: “He really quantified what it was to be a real artist for me in the sense that he was definitely, and I worked with some great people, he was definitely the most brilliant artist I’ve ever worked with.”

“I’ll never forget it”

Williams, who struggled with addiction, “really opened up” to Lawrence over his issues during filming, the now-45-year-old revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

“I’ll never forget it,” the Masked Singer star said. “There were times he would just grab me and he’d be like, ‘Don’t put that stuff in your body. If I could go back and tell myself, this is why I’m telling you, don’t put that stuff in your body.’”

Williams, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, died by suicide in 2014, at the age of 63.

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