Zelda Williams asks people to 'stop sending' her the viral Robin Williams video: 'My late dad on one of his saddest days'
Yes, Zelda Williams has seen the viral video of the actor impersonating her dad.
For days now, a video has been circulating of actor Jamie Costa channeling the late Robin Williams. In it, Costa portrays Robin in the Mork & Mindy era — specifically on March 5, 1982 when he learned from co-star Pam Dawber (played by Sarah Murphree) that his friend and fellow comic John Belushi died by overdose hours after the men partied together.
Costa posted the five-minute clip to YouTube, titling it "ROBIN Test Footage Scene," on Tuesday and it already has 3.3 million views. As a result, people have been calling for a Williams biopic to be made starring the unknown Costa, whose performance has given goosebumps.
Zelda is one of the viewers of the video, she admitted, but she asked people to stop "spamming" her with it.
"Guys, I’m only saying this because I don't think it'll stop until I acknowledge it," she began. "Please, stop sending me the 'test footage.' I've seen it."
The comedy legend's only daughter, who is an actress herself, went on to say, "Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn't against him, but y'all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird."
Guys, I’m only saying this because I don’t think it’ll stop until I acknowledge it… please, stop sending me the ‘test footage’. I’ve seen it. Jamie is SUPER talented, this isn’t against him, but y’all spamming me an impression of my late Dad on one of his saddest days is weird.
— Zelda Williams (@zeldawilliams) October 12, 2021
Robin, who died by suicide at age 63 in 2014, visited Belushi at his Chateau Marmont bungalow hours before the Saturday Night Live and Blues Brother star was found dead from a cocaine and heroin overdose.
In the 2018 documentary Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Dawber said Robin — who spoke publicly about his alcohol and cocaine dependency — was partying by Belushi's side that fateful night but left because "he was so stoned he could hardly stand up."
Dawber broke the news of Belushi's death to Robin on the Mork & Mindy set — and it rocked him.
“We just walked together toward our trailers and, just before he went into his trailer, I said, ‘If that ever happens to you, I will find you and kill you first,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'Dawbs, that’s never gonna happen to me.'"
It resulted in Robin getting sober for many years (though he later had relapses which he sought treatment for). Archival footage in the doc had Robin speaking about Belushi's death, saying, "Here’s this guy who's a beast, who could do anything, and he's gone. That sobered the s*** out of me."
Robin also told People magazine in 1988, “The Belushi tragedy was frightening. His death scared a whole group of show-business people. It caused a big exodus from drugs."
Zelda, 32, is one of Robin's three children. She and her younger brother Cody, 29, are from the Mrs. Doubtfire and Good Will Hunting star's marriage to second wife Marsha Garces Williams. Zak Williams, 38, is from Robin's first marriage to his first wife, Valerie Velardi.
Zelda quit social media in 2014 after being trolled in the wake of her father's death. Ahead of the anniversary of his death each year, she avoids social media.
She explained, "It's hard for me on regular, good days to remain the person expected to graciously accept the world's need to share their memories of him and express their condolences for his loss. As I've said in the past, while I am constantly touched by all of your boundless continued love for him, some days it can feel a bit like being seen as a roadside memorial – a place, not a person – where people drive past and leave their sentiments to then go about their days comforted their love for him was witnessed. But sometimes, that leaves me emotionally buried under a pile of other's memories instead of my own. After all, even roses by the truckload still weigh a ton."