The child stars of the 1993 comedy classic “Mrs. Doubtfire”, Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub and Matthew Lawrence, recently reunited after 31 years.
They posted enjoying each other’s company on social media.
“So funny that the same week I went to San Francisco, I got to reunite with my ‘Doubtfire’ siblings!” Wilson wrote. “It’s always a joy to see Lisa Jakub and Matthew Lawrence.”
Talks of a sequel only began in 2014 with director Chris Columbus and Robin Williams, with Williams expressing concern over the physical toll of wearing the Mrs. Doubtfire costume again.
Unfortunately, Williams passed away later that year without a sequel moving forward.
Jakub noted that “the sisters had so much fun hanging out with the brothers,” and that Wilson and Lawrence “still feel like my siblings, even 30 years after filming ‘Mrs Doubtfire.’”
Columbus revealed that Williams improvised so much on set that over 2 million feet of film was recorded, with hundreds of boxes still in storage.
Columbus hopes to one day create a documentary exploring Williams’ creative process through the unused footage from “Mrs. Doubtfire”.
“It’s an interesting thing. Back then, there was an attitude that sequels were looked down upon by the artists. So Robin was against doing a sequel immediately after,” Columbus said. “He and I didn’t talk about a sequel until the year he passed away.”
“We had a script that was written and it was the last time I saw Robin,” he added. “I went to his house and we sat down and talked about it and the script was really strong. Robin’s only comment was, ‘Boss, do I have to be in the suit as much this time?’ It was physically demanding. For Robin, I think it was like running a marathon every day he was in the Doubtfire costume. He was older, obviously. So we talked about it and I think he was hoping in the rewrite we would cut back on the Doubtfire character. But then Robin passed away so there will never be a sequel to ‘Mrs. Doubtfire.’”
“There are roughly 972 boxes of footage from ‘Doubtfire’ — footage we used in the movie, outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage — in a warehouse somewhere and we would like to hire an editor to go in and look at all of that footage,” Columbus said. “We want to show Robin’s process. There is something special and magical about how he went about his work and I think it would be fun to delve into it. I mean, there’s 2 million feet of film in that warehouse so there could be something we can do with all of that.”
The film remains beloved for fans who grew up with the child stars, and footage from its production could provide new insights into Williams’ legendary comedic talents.
