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Lisa Jakub didn't vanish into obscurity after her role in Independence Day and playing Lydia (the eldest daughter) in Mrs. Doubtfire. While she did quit acting and disappeared from the spotlight, Lisa built a completely different life for herself. Part of that life includes her successful work as an author and mental wellness advocate.
Despite the fact that Lisa's current career is quite dissimilar from the one she fell into as a kid, her experiences on the set of Mrs. Doubtfire have impacted the person she's become. Here's the truth about Lisa's relationships with her co-stars.
Lisa Jakub's Relationship With Matthew Lawrence And Mara Wilson
In both her memoirs, Lisa wrote about the "debilitating" anxiety and depression that plagued her ever since she was young. These feelings, paired with the natural competition embedded in young actors, could've made her relationship with her on-screen siblings incredibly difficult. After all, Lisa, Matthew Lawrence (Chris), and Mara Wilson (Nattie) were three strangers thrust into a new world with spotlights, money, and mega-stars. It can be a recipe for disaster. But in an interview with Vulture, Lisa claimed that she immediately hit it off with both Matt and Mara.
"All three of us just knew that we loved each other — we bonded instantly. Part of that is that I am an only child and always desperate for siblings. The fact that I could have some siblings, even for a little while, I loved, and I just decided Mara was mine to take care of. I was instantly protective of her," Lisa admitted, before claiming that while she was enamored with Robin, who was fantastic with the kids behind the scenes, she wanted to spend most of her time with Matt and Mara. "We just felt like family."
Both Lisa and Mara have stated that the seeds of their current close relationship were planted back when they shot the film in 1992.
"I am so grateful that that relationship with Mara has stayed such an important part of both of our lives," Lisa explained. "We did lose touch for quite a while. She was working a lot. I was working a lot. Texting wasn’t a thing. So it was really hard to keep in touch when we were on location. I remember really missing her. Then, when we got back into touch, it was like no time had passed. That’s an incredibly special relationship that you have with very few people when you can just pick up where you left off."
"I am so glad that we have reconnected and that that’s something important to both of us to maintain, because not only being child actors, but also having gone through what was a really singular experience of the filming and the audience reaction of Mrs. Doubtfire — nobody else but Matt and Mara and I understand what that experience was like as a child."
Lisa Jakub's Relationship With Sally Field And Pierce Brosnan
Lisa told Vulture that Sally, who played her mother, was "everything you would hope she would be".
"She did such an amazing job making sure that we had space to be kids, making sure that we were okay, making sure that we were feeling balanced with our workload on set, our homework, and just time to have fun," Lisa explained. "Especially now, looking back on that, I’m just so grateful to her and impressed by her and that she took the time to really do that and to have this very maternal, protective side of her."
Much like Robin, Sally was always looking out for Lisa and her on-screen siblings. But Lisa claimed her relationship with Pierce Brosnan was quite different.
"I didn’t have that much contact with Pierce during filming. He was always absolutely lovely, but he was a little bit standoffish. Onscreen, we didn’t need to have that much interaction or chemistry. He was the mom’s boyfriend — he wasn’t really involved with the kids very much. We didn’t need to have the same kind of relationship with Pierce that we had with Robin and with Sally. Also, looking back, I’m realizing it was great that Pierce wasn’t wanting to hang out with a 14-year-old girl. That’s just reasonable boundaries."
How Robin Williams' Impacted Lisa Jakub's Mental Health
Not surprisingly, Robin Williams was one of the most impactful figures from Lisa's childhood. She credits him for being open with her about mental health issues, a topic that became immensely important in Lisa's second career.
"It was such an incredible comfort to me to realize that I was not alone with this, that I was not some weirdo who couldn’t cope with the world. It was incredibly meaningful to me at the time. Looking back at it, I realized that it was really brave of him. It was just such a relief because I started having panic attacks when I was about 10 or 11 and had always had issues with anxiety," Lisa explained.
She went on to say, "I really appreciated him being so honest about everything that he had been through, and I really felt like I could talk to him. Especially back then, it was not something that was talked about very often. To see him speak so freely and to see him really treat me like a co-worker, a fellow human, and not talk down to me was pretty spectacular."
