It has been almost 9 years since the world lost beloved actor and comedian Robin Williams. The Hollywood star breathed his last on 11 August 2014 at the age of 63. He’s remembered as a great actor with superhit movies like Good Will Hunting, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Dead Poets Society. However, Williams isn’t admired just for his theatrical talents. He was also an incredibly kind person and one of his littlest co-stars from Jumanji, Bradley Pierce, once recounted an incident that shed light on the star’s magnanimity.
Bradley Pierce Recounts How Robin Williams Saved Him On Jumanji
During a 2020 interview with CBC Listen, actor Bradley Pierce talked about Williams’ compassion that saved him from working overtime on the sets of Jumanji. Pierce starred in the 1995 fantasy adventure movie about a board game that comes alive with Williams and Kirsten Dunst. He was only 13 when he played that role. The actor talked about a sequence where playing the game brings in torrential rain all over the world.
In that scene, he was in heavy makeup since his character was turned into a monkey. However, rain and monkey makeup didn’t complement each other and the water was preventing him from breathing. The now 40-year-old actor said:
“I couldn’t breathe through my nose.”
He also said that the shooting of that scene lasted for 8 days and was making everyone, including Dunst, feel tired and drained. However, the producers didn’t care. They wanted to go overtime to save money, but doing so isn’t legal for child actors. Pierce said:
“Children can only be on set for a number of hours. The producers had approached our parents and said, ‘Is there any way we can do a bit of overtime to get it done.’ That’s not uncommon at all in the industry because it literally saves $100,000 (£73,000) plus to do that extra half hour rather than a whole day.”
Thankfully, Williams didn’t let that happen. He told the producers that they will all return to shoot the next week. Pierce fondly recalled:
“He (Robin Williams) said, ‘No, we are not doing any extra time. You’re going to let everybody out now and we’re going to come back next week.”
Pierce praised the late actor for standing up for him and Dunst in a way no one would ever have. He lauded Williams for protecting them as children while also being kind, warm, and generous. But this isn’t the only incident of Williams where he’s openly kind to people who desperately need it.
Read More: ‘Aladdin’s Genie meets Harry Potter’: WB Didn’t Let Robin Williams Play Hagrid as He Wasn’t British
Robin Williams Helped A Man Get Over His Parents’ Deaths
There is a popular story on Reddit that depicts Robin Williams’ boundless ability to empathize and be kind. The tale goes that in San Francisco, a man’s father was downing in grief after losing his parents. The memorial service wasn’t going well with the emotions running high. So the family went to a doughnut shop at 2:30 a.m. to eat a little. Coincidentally, Williams was in the shop as well and was drinking coffee that late at night. But he saw the grieving family and came over to make them smile on the darkest day of their life.
The Redditor said:
“I couldn’t tell you what they laughed about, but I remember seeing my parents laugh and smile for the first time in weeks. My dad remembered that so fondly. He always said it was exactly what he had needed at that time, and that he appreciated the way Robin Williams went about it. It wasn’t that he was a celebrity; he was just a nice guy who saw a bunch of sad folks and realized he could probably make a difference. And he did.”
There’s no way to know if this story is true or just a tall tale. But considering Williams’ extensive history with charitable organizations and missions, it isn’t surprising that the late actor had a kind heart like no other.
Source: CBC Listen
