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How Robin Williams cheered up Steven Spielberg when he was directing ‘Schindler’s List’
Robin Williams called him every week to cheer him up while he was filming his 1993 Holocaust movie, “Schindler’s List.”Spielberg’s friendship with Williams stretched back to “Hook,” the 1991 flick that Spielberg directed and featured Williams as an adult Peter Pan.Spielberg opened up about “Schindler’s List,” and several other topics, in a wide-ranging interview in the Hollywood Reporter to talk about the 30th anniversary of the movie, which was filmed in Krakow, Poland, in 1993.The movie, which won seven Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards in 1994 — including Best Picture and Best Director (for Spielberg) — told the story of German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.“Robin knew how hard it was for me on the movie, and once a week, every Friday, he’d call me on the phone and do comedy for me,” Spielberg said.“Whether it was after 10 minutes or 20 minutes, when he heard me give the biggest laugh, he’d hang up on me.”Neeson also remembered Williams’ Friday phone calls to Spielberg.“Steven would tell us afterward the sorts of things Robin would say,” Neeson recalled. “Once he started a riff of ‘I’m not a Nazi, I’m a nutsy,’ all this sort of s – – t.”Williams, the comedically brilliant “Mork & Mindy” star and Oscar-winning actor (“Good Will Hunting”), died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63.Spielberg said that shooting “Schindler’s List” took its toll on him, emotionally.“The hard days were beyond my imagination and the easy days were never easy,” he told THR.
