Zelda Williams Remembers How Her Dad Robin Made All His Movies Hire Unhoused People
Robin Williams wasn’t just one of the greatest comedic and dramatic actors to ever grace the screen, he was also one of the greatest guys to ever grace a film set.
Ever since Williams’ death on August 11, 2014, friends, family members and co-stars have been sharing stories about his tremendous grace and empathy to keep his memory alive. The impression that we, as fans, get about the brilliant artist’s personal life is that, for as wonderful and joy-inducing as Williams was onscreen, he was an even bigger joy after the cameras stopped rolling. The tales of the Good Will Hunting and Mrs. Doubtfire star’s selflessness are the stuff of Hollywood legend, but, as his children remind us, they wouldn’t be so extraordinary if other A-listers followed his example and used their position to do the everyday acts of kindness that made Williams who he was.
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During the festivities for Comic Relief Live at Lincoln Center in New York City on Monday, actress and director Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin, recalled how her dad would insist that every movie in which he starred should hire unhoused people who needed the work.
“My dad, on all of his projects and especially when he was on tour, would hire homeless people,” Williams told PEOPLE of her father’s hiring habits. “He would actively give them jobs.” Presumably, she’s taken after her father’s philosophy on philanthropy since her own entertainment career hit a new milestone when she directed her first feature film, Lisa Frankenstein, the Diablo Cody-written horror-romantic-comedy, earlier this year.
“Please, if you ever have an opening, at least consider it,” Williams begged her fellow moviemakers. “It makes an enormous difference for people generationally. It doesn’t just take incredible organizations like (Comic Relief). It takes individuals. So if you ever don’t think that you as a single person or as a person who has a business can make a difference, please know you can, even if you’re hiring just one person.”
The late Williams famously required every film in which he appeared to hire at least 10 unhoused workers, allowing more than 1,500 different people who needed a break to land some temporary work. Most famously, Williams was responsible for discovering Craig Castaldo, now known as Radio Man, while working on the 1991 film The Fisher King. Because of Williams, Radio Man managed to create a career as a background actor and escape homelessness, and he’s still popping up in big-budget releases to this day.
If every movie star adopted Williams’ approach to staffing sets, it would probably make Williams’ own work with the unhoused less newsworthy, but it would definitely make the world a much better place.
