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"Remember This Moment"The Advice Robin Williams Gave Mila Kunis That Will Always Stick With Her
Back in 2012, Mila Kunis had the pleasure of working on the film The Angriest Man in Brooklyn with Robin Williams.
The 31-year-old mom-to-be hasn’t yet spoken out about the beloved actor’s death, but an unreleased excerpt for an article of her talking about the best advice she received from him was recently published.
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The interview took place on her first day of shooting with the comedic legend. She was asked if she had ever worked with him before, and this is what she shared:
No, but I can tell you a story.
I reminded Robin of it today. I was 15, 16 maybe, and Kurtwood Smith knew him—Kurtwood Smith was on That '70s Show—we were shooting at CBS and Robin was shooting a show at the time that no longer's on the air–it was some doctor show—and he played a man with elephantiasis. And Kurt said, "Oh, I’m gonna go say hi to Robin." And I was like, Oh my god, like there's Robin Williams.
We were stage 2 and this doctor show, or whatever it was, was stage 3. And I said, "Kurt, can I come with you?" And he's said, "Oh my God, of course."
And so many times you meet people they don't impact you. You meet them and they're gracious and they're nice, and then there are some times when you meet somebody and they say one thing and for the rest of your life you carry that one thing and they don't even know that they impacted your life. So here's Robin Williams fully decked out in elephantiasis makeup, like he was the Elephant Man, and we were talking and I'm being super quiet, and he just kind of turns to me and he said, "What's your name?”
And I said, “I'm Mila.”
And he said, “Yeah? You're on '70s?” And then he said, “Remember this moment. Remember this because things like this don't happen very often. Remember this time.”
Having somebody of Robin Williams' stature tell me to just acknowledge something meant so much. He didn't mentor me. He just said, “Step back and appreciate this. You're having an amazing time.” I was so nervous. And he said, “Relax. And don't forget to enjoy yourself because things like this don't happen to everyone.”
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The interviewer then points out people of Robin’s caliber may not even realize they’re being so generous with small acts of kindness like that. Mila’s response?
Completely. But he wasn't even trying to be. All he did was say, "Enjoy yourself and don't forget this." Like: "Just take a breath and acknowledge that you have an amazing opportunity.” For no reason. It wasn't like I asked him anything. And I told him this today, and he said, “It stands true. Today, right now, at this very moment, step back and appreciate it.” And I went, “Okay.”
— Esquire
