NEED TO KNOW
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is opening up about the moment he and his Modern Family cast mates learned Robin Williams had died.
The 50-year-old actor, who played Mitchell Pritchett on the beloved ABC sitcom, spoke about that moment on the Dec. 9 episode of the Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson podcast with guest Josh Hutcherson.
As Ferguson explained, he happened to be with one of Williams’ old co-stars: Nathan Lane, who had a recurring role on Modern Family as Pepper Saltzman.
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“I was with Nathan Lane, he was working on Modern Family when we found out that Robin Williams had passed away,” Ferguson said. “And I was like, I hope this sounds, I hope this is funny to someone. But I was like, ‘Nathan did, did you ever work with him? Did you know him?’ He’s like, ‘He played my husband on The Birdcage.’ I was like, oh my God. That’s right.'”
He continued: “I was like, ‘Of course he did.’ [The Birdcage] is like one of my favorite films. But I was just sort of like in shock.”
After struggling with an undiagnosed case of the debilitating brain disorder Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), the prolific actor and comedian died by suicide at age 63 on Aug. 11, 2014, at his Paradise Cay mansion in San Francisco.
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Elsewhere on the podcast, Hutcherson added his own memories of working with Williams on the 2006 film RV.
“I mean, I grew up loving him. Like, when I said Jumanji was one that like, made me want to do this or realize that I could,” Hutcherson, 33, said. “And Robin was someone that, I mean, he just brought joy to everyone around him … he was just a joy to be around and the funniest person I’ve ever seen in my life. And just like on set, it was just the energy was always there — at a level 1,000, just as such a great role model for a 12-year-old to be around.”
