Robin Williams and Steven Spielberg

Did you know that during the filming of Schindler’s List, Robin Williams would call Steven Spielberg and do stand up comedy to comfort the director?

Spielberg and the late actor had worked together on the 1991 film Hook, where the two became friends. Schindler’s list was released 2 years later in 1993.

During a 25th anniversary of the Oscar-winning film at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018, Spielberg said he relied on weekly phone calls from Robin Williams to keep his spirits up.

“Robin knew what I was going through, and once a week, Robin would call me on schedule and he would do 15 minutes of stand-up on the phone,” Spielberg said. “I would laugh hysterically because I had to release so much.”