Ethan Hawke, who played Todd Anderson in the 1989 classic Dead Poets Society, has opened up about Robin Williams' struggles on the set, where he portrayed an inspiring English teacher, John Keating.
During his appearance on CBS Sunday Morning, Ethan was asked if he's been able to watch the film after Robin's 2014 suicide amid his battle with Lewy body dementia; the Sinister actor replied that it "does not fundamentally change the way I watch the movie."
He continued, "Even at 18, I was aware of the complexity of his emotional life. I've had a lot of depression in my family, and it was obvious to me that all that power and that charisma came at a certain cost. He was a deeply, deeply sensitive person who was highly attuned to the energy of a room."
Recalling one instance from the set, Ethan shared that Robin was "making up lines, and everyone was laughing and praising him," but then later he found him "hiding in the corner in the dark by himself."
"I thought, 'Oh, OK. It makes a lot more sense to me now,'" the 55-year-old noted.
Ethan added that the end of Robin's life does not define him, sharing, "And when I watch the movie, I think of the spirit of the man I knew in those days and how powerful it was and how much he weathered that storm of his psyche for us and for other people."
Dead Poets Society, the 1989 coming-of-age film about a group of boys in a prestigious boarding school and their English teacher, remained an important part of cinema decades later.
