'Mrs Doubtfire' child star says Robin Williams helped her by writing letter to school after she was expelled

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Lisa Jakub, 45, is best known for playing Robin Williams' onscreen daughter, Lydia Hillard, in the 1993 comedy classic 'Mrs Doubtfire'.

During her appearance on 'Mrs Doubtfire' co-star Matthew Lawrence's 'Brotherly Love Podcast', the former actress reminisced about the time when the comedy legend helped her when she was expelled from school.

Lisa Jakub says Robin Williams wrote to her school principal urging him to rethink the expulsion

Jakub, then 14, was in ninth grade when 'Mrs Doubtfire' was being filmed. She often had to miss school due to the busy filming schedule, as per Fox News.

After getting frustrated with her repeated absence, the school decided to expel her. This was, when, Williams stepped in to help Jakub.

In the podcast, she recalled, "I got thrown out of high school on ‘Doubtfire’. I was attending high school in Canada, and then I left for like four months to go film the movie, and we were going to set up this system, right?"

The former actress continued, "This is pre-internet where I would mail my schoolwork back and forth to the school and we did that for a while."

Despite missing school, Jakub was making efforts to study as she mentioned the child actors had three hours of onset tutoring every day.

Nevertheless, her school sent her a note, which read, "This isn’t working for us anymore. Don’t come back," leaving Jakub "devastated."

She admitted, "It was just so heartbreaking 'cause I had this life that was very unusual and that was kind of the one normal thing." 

This was when her onscreen father stepped in and did the "amazing thing."

After Williams noticed she was upset, he asked her about it. He ended up "writing a letter to my principal saying that he wanted them to rethink this decision and that I was just trying to pursue my education and my career at the same time and could they please support me in this?"

In an ironic tone, Jakub shared how the principal framed the letter and displayed it in his office but "didn’t ask me to come back. Amazing."

When Jakub left acting at 22, she still lacked a high school degree. However, she later obtained her GED and currently runs a nonprofit aimed at helping military veterans transition back to civilian life.

Robin Williams helped Lisa Jakub with her improvisation skills

Jakub also reminisced about Williams teaching her the craft of improvisation.

She shared, "I had been working for a decade when I started on 'Doubtfire', but we had always used a script, so I knew when it was my turn to speak, and I could say my line, right? And then you go on set with Robin, and it’s like who the f*** knows what’s going to happen now! And so you had to be really present."

You know you’re just going to go with it because he’s Robin and you can trust him," added the former actress.

She expressed that working with the 'Jumanji' actor, who died in 2014, was far more "meditative" as opposed to her previous acting experiences, which were more "rote."

Previously in an interview with 'Good Morning America', Jakub praised Williams, noting, "He was very open about his issues with mental wellness. He taught me it was OK to be vulnerable. What was most meaningful to me was to see that human beneath the comedic act."