Diane Lane Reflects on Robin Williams’ Kindness and Unforgettable Presence While Filming Jack (1996)

Lane, 60, opened up to Enter­tain­ment Tonight in a video shared Oct. 20 and filmed at the 2025 New­port Beach Film Fes­ti­val Hon­ors, where Lane received the ICON Award. Lane was asked about her 1996 movie Jack, which turns 30 next year. In it, Williams, who died in 2014 at the age of 63, played a boy who ages four times faster than nor­mal. Lane played his moth­er Karen. 

The man was a breath of, more than fresh air,” Lane said of her late costar “He set the bar so high in terms of good ener­gy.”

The Anniver­sary star remem­bered the ”love­ly wrap gift” he gave her when film­ing end­ed: a book of all of Shakespeare’s writ­ings that he’d signed. 

“It holds a very spe­cial place in my library,” she said, “Because he has that in him. He can do all of it.” She explained that Williams could do “the court jester” and “King Lear” and every­thing in between.

“He brought all of it with him,” she con­tin­ued, “So in that way, I thought that the gift was very appro­pri­ate com­ing from him, because he could play all the parts in all the plays.”

Jack, which was direct­ed by Fran­cis Ford Cop­po­la, also starred Jen­nifer Lopez, Bri­an Ker­win, Fran Dresch­er, Michael McK­ean and Bill Cos­by. The movie received neg­a­tive reviews upon release, with Roger Ebertwrit­ing, “Williams works hard at seem­ing to be a kid inside an adult body, and some of his inspi­ra­tions work well. But he has been ill-served by a screen­play that isn’t curi­ous about what his life would real­ly be like.”

But the movie had its defend­ers. Direc­tor Luca Guadagni­no told the British Film Insti­tute in 2024 that he thinks Jack is one of Coppola’s mas­ter­pieces. “For me, a great direc­tor invis­i­bly mas­ters every­thing he does. In Jack, you feel the way in which he’s tak­ing this kind of con­ven­tion­al sto­ry but bring­ing human­i­ty, and the way in which the world is cre­at­ed. It’s so beau­ti­ful,” he explained

But the actress admit­ted there’s “plen­ty” of regret going around and that she and her friends laugh about some of the things that have hap­pened in their careers. “You go with the flow and you roll with the punch­es and you say, ‘Well, next time I’ll know bet­ter,’ ” she said. “I don’t mind mak­ing mis­takes as long as I don’t lose the les­son.”

Diane Lane has opened up about her fond mem­o­ries of work­ing with the late Robin Williams on their 1996 film Jack. The actress recalled how Williams’ ener­gy, kind­ness, and humor made every day on set unfor­get­table.

“He set the bar so high for what it means to be gen­er­ous and joy­ful while work­ing,” Lane said, describ­ing how his pres­ence brought light to every­one around him. She also shared a touch­ing sto­ry about a per­son­al gift Williams gave her dur­ing film­ing — a small ges­ture that, in her words, “spoke vol­umes about his heart.”

Near­ly three decades lat­er, Lane still trea­sures those moments and says Williams’ warmth con­tin­ues to inspire her both per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. “He remind­ed us all to stay curi­ous, kind, and nev­er lose the child with­in,” she added.