DWTS Alum’s Brother Shares ‘Painful’ Advice He Received From Robin Williams

Matthew Lawrence, the brother of “Dancing With the Stars” alum Joey Lawrence, revealed a “painful” lesson he learned from working with Robin Williams on the set of “Mrs. Doubtfire.”

At the time, Lawrence, now 43, was “11 or 12” years old and had a close relationship with the comedian, who was like his second father when they were filming. But Lawrence found out that Williams was a different person behind the scenes than he was on stage.

“It was so painful for him just to sit there and have quiet,” Lawrence said on his podcast, “Brotherly Love.”

The “Brotherly Love” star remembers being excited to talk to Williams in his trailer, but he would find the comedian with his head in his hands.

Williams believed his brain was damaged after being addicted to cocaine for five years.

“He said, after those five years of cocaine — even though I got off it and I got clean — it chemically changed my brain,” Lawrence said, remembering his conversation with Williams. “Now I have to deal with this s*** all day, every day. It’s stolen my time with my kids, my wife, it’s stolen parts of my career, it’s stolen part of my brain from me.”

After hearing about Williams’ experience, Lawrence was afraid to do drugs. “Hearing that from a guy I admired, I wasn’t doing that s***,” he said on the podcast.

Joey Lawrence competed on season 3 of “Dancing With the Stars.” That’s where Matthew Lawrence met professional “DWTS” dancer Cheryl Burke. They were married from 2019 to 2022, according to People. They dated for about a year in 2007 and then reconnected in 2017.

Burke quit “DWTS” in 2022 after 26 seasons of competition, Entertainment Weekly wrote.

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Lawrence Said Life For Williams Off Stage Was ‘Terrible’

“One of the biggest impacts I took off that set — Mrs. Doubtfire — was the fact that when he was on, he was on. When he was off, it was really a bad experience for him,” Lawrence said.

“Life was terrible for him when he was off stage and he was not shy about that,” Lawrence continued. “I understand why he was not shy about that because he flat-out told me. He pulled me aside. He knew I was a quiet, perceptive child. He knew. He knew I caught on. He knew I knew what was going on with him more than some of the other people on set did.”

Williams died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 63. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but after the autopsy, it was determined the comedian had Lewy body disease, Williams’ son Zak said on the  “The Genius Life” podcast in 2021, per CBS News.

According to the National Institutes of Health, Lewy body disease is when deposits of protein — called Lewy bodies — changed the brain chemicals, and lead to issues with “thinking, movement, behavior, and mood.”

Williams also suffered from depression and anxiety, Zak Williams said on the podcast.

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Lawrence Was Fired For Not Removing His Clothes For an Award-Winning Director

Lawrence revealed that his agency fired him after he refused to remove his clothes for an “award-winning director” while talking about the #MeToo movement his personal experience with sexual harassment on the April 28 episode of the “Brotherly Love” podcast. 

Lawrence was promised a role in a Marvel movie if he undressed.

“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” Lawrence said on the podcast.

“I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room” and a famous director “showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, said he needed to take Polaroids of me and said if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”

Lawrence didn’t reveal the name of the director or his agency.

He said both men and women in the entertainment industry have experienced this type of sexual harassment, but men don’t speak out as much as women do.

“Not a lot of guys in my opinion have come out and talked about this in the industry,” Lawrence said. “Now granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through. Men go through this as well… I think our society is less ready to hear that situation is going on with men than they are with women.”

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