Pierce Brosnan Recalls His Hilarious First Meeting With Robin Williams

Pierce Brosnan didn’t get the chance to work with Robin Williams often, but on the rare occasion that he did, the actor said the experience was “truly magnificent.”

Brosnan recalled his memory of the late actor, who died in 2014, during a recent chat he had with Grammy-winning singer Kelly Clarkson for an episode of her Emmy-winning talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.

“It was such a blast, so memorable,” the 69-year-old James Bond alum said of his time filming with Williams on the classic family film. “I mean, if I never did anything else, I made Mrs. Doubtfire.”

Brosnan portrayed Stuart “Stu” Dunmeyer and the love interest to Miranda Hillard (played by Sally Field), the ex-wife and mother of Daniel Hillard’s (Williams) children (Matthew Lawrence, Mara Wilson, and Lisa Jakub) in the 1993 comedy.

And during the sit down, Brosnan revealed that he couldn’t have been more relieved when he got offered the role, which was first turned down by Tim Allen (who also turned down the part of Mrs. Doubtfire). “This job came at a time where I was really worrying about the mortgage payment,” he explained. “And they said, ‘You got a job that’s for Robin Williams,’ and it was a truly magnificent experience.”

The actor even let Clarkson in on the first time he met the award-winning actor, joking that it was “creepy.”

“I remember the first day up in San Francisco–it was a gorgeous, sunny day–and they said, ‘Well, uh, welcome, and do you want to meet Robin?'” he recalled, “and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he said ‘he’s in the makeup trailer.'”

He continued, “So I went into the makeup trailer and he was sitting there and he had a Hawaiian shirt on, and big hairy arms and legs and cargo pants, but Mrs. Doubtfire’s head.”

“‘Oh, hello, Pierce,'” the actor said while perfectly impersonating Williams’ Mrs. Doubtfire voice. “‘Give us a kiss!'”

Brosnan later told the host that due to the lengthy amount of time his co-star spent in makeup chair—a daily routine that began at 4 a.m.—he felt as though he didn’t work with the actor, just his character.

“I really never worked with Robin,” he quipped. “I worked with Mrs. Doubtfire the whole time.”