Throughout Modern Family’s 11-season run, the cast had been through a lot together, both personally and professionally. Even five years after the sitcom ended, they are all still close and holding Modern Family reunions from time to time. While it's clear they all look back on this experience fondly, not everything they went through on set was great, which was made clear as Jesse Tyler Ferguson reflected on the Modern Family cast being with Nathan Lane when news of Robin Williams’ death broke.
Ferguson’s latest guest on his Dinner’s On Me podcast was Josh Hutcherson, and at one point, the two got to talking about Robin Williams, whom The Hunger Games actor worked with on RV. Williams’ death in 2014 took the world by surprise, and Ferguson explained that he found out about it during one of Nathan Lane’s many appearances on Modern Family as Pepper Saltzman. Now, famously, Lane had worked with Williams on an iconic movie; however, the Mitchell actor completely forgot about it when they learned of his death:
I was with Nathan Lane. He was working on Modern Family when we found out that Robin Williams had passed away. And I was like, I hope this is funny to someone. But I was like, ‘Nathan, did you ever work with him? Did you know him?’ He's like, ‘He played my husband on The Birdcage.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, that's right.’ Of course, he did, which is like one of my favorite films. That was so good.
Being on the set of a sitcom where everyone is happy and laughing and then getting news like that is not easy, especially since there’s a big shift in the environment. Plus, while Williams' death hit hard for a lot of people, those who personally knew him, like Lane, were likely hit hardest. However, I'd imagine that the Modern Family star forgetting about The Birdcage actually helped lighten the mood when the tragic news broke.
As I said, Lane had worked with Williams on The Birdcage, which was released in 1996. The film, an adaptation of the 1978 French film La Cage aux Folles, which is an adaptation of a 1973 play. It follows Albert and Armand Goldman, a gay couple whose son is set to marry the daughter of a conservative senator. Not only was it a box office success, but it was also one of the few films from a major studio to feature LGBT characters at its center during that time. So I can only imagine the type of impact it and its success had on Lane and Williams' lives.
Meanwhile, Williams’ legacy has lived on years after his death, so much so that Dwayne Johnson is honoring him while filming Jumanji 4 by wearing a necklace with the original film’s prop dice. It was a heartfelt way to pay tribute to him as the final chapter in Jumanji continues filming, and there’s no telling what other nods there will be in the actual movie that will be released in 2026.
Getting news that Robin Williams had died was not easy for anyone who was a fan of his work, which was practically the whole world. But Jesse Tyler Ferguson being able to share that moment with the cast and Nathan Lane probably made it bearable, and I can only imagine the kind of stories that were shared around after that.
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