All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
I envy your ignorance, Dustin. Wish I didn't know first hand how very wrong you are.
When someone suffers from severe depression and ends their life, I think it's very important for people to talk about it. Most people don't understand it. Robin Williams himself was very open about his struggles...in hopes it would enlighten people or possibly let others who have the same issues know they aren't alone. He lost his battle with this illness and so will others if people skirt the issue.
So yeah...Robin Williams was a fave of mine. I love "The Birdcage", Love "Good Will Hunting", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Peter Pan".... I also adored Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Another person who struggled with these issues. PSH was in my top five fave actors of all time. Tragic.
A person I know very well suffers from depression. Every day she wakes up wondering if waking up was the right or wrong thing to do. If she picks out a blue shirt, she obsesses that she should have picked the red one. That ruins her day, as well. She blames herself for lousing everything up. Nothing she does, in her mind, is right. Nothing.
That's depression for her. I don't see her smile or laugh. Nothing, not even her own grankids, can induce a smile or a light moment. It's heartbreaking. Truly. And I feel it effects different people in many different ways. And it's real.
That being said, God Bless Robin Williams. A truly gifted actor. Funny how such a comedic man excelled so brilliantly in his more dramatic roles. My fave? Gotta be The Fisher King. Simply awesome movie.
I've seen some prepared statements from show business folks that recently worked with Williams and said he appeared fine. I thought that either Williams was putting on a good front or perhaps they just weren't very intuitive.
Then, I recalled an old interview with Dick Cavett, who's suffered from the disease since he was 17. He talked about depression and suicide - it's heartbreaking:
"Apparently one thing I said on “Larry King” back then hit home hard. It was that when you’re downed by this affliction, if there were a curative magic wand on the table eight feet away, it would be too much trouble to go over and pick it up. In the depths of the malady, getting a stamp on a letter is a day’s work. Going out to somehow arrange for a gun would be way beyond your capability while stricken. But having one near at hand is another matter. Suicide rarely happens when you are all the way down in the uttermost depths. Again, it’s too much trouble. Perhaps the saddest irony of depression is that suicide happens when the patient gets a little better and can again function sufficiently. 'She seemed to be improving,' is the sad cry of the mourners."
Robin Williams was someone who seemed best at home giving of himself until he became lost in the act. The audience almost seemed secondary when he was on. He was like a wound up spindle top on stage and when he was done, I’m certain he experienced some of the worst come downs imaginable.
But that was his release. That was his center. I think we loved him so much because deep down inside we wish we could let go like he did. It was vulnerable and open.
It was the same wide openness he lived by, riding to great heights and to the roar of applause that he also had to endure in agony with the blinds closed, alone.
I think over time, the crash stopped being worth the high and the openness simply grew into constant pain.
Let's not forget that mental health (or mental ill-health) is entertainment - it always has been and always will be - from Van Gogh onward, people who can't deal with day-to-day life find an outlet -- he was manic-depressive not just depressive, and it was the manic element that sold and was loved so well.
Apart from Dead Poets, Doubtfire, Peter Pan, Good Will Hunting and all those other famous films, I'll miss him because of he was the man who starred in films as such these...
'Awakenings' is my solid favorite. And 'One-Hour Photo' was well worth the watch, especially if you're into thrillers. (Actual slow-burning thrillers, that is.)
Robin Williams wife revealed today that on top of depression and anxiety, Robin Williams was also battling the early stages of Parkinson's Disease which he was not yet ready to share publicly.
Pages: 
Author
Robin Williams suicide
Logged
Locked Board