Sarah Michelle Gellar says Robin Williams’s death led to her take an acting break.
The actress, who played Williams’s TV daughter in The Crazy Ones from 2013 to 2014, spoke to People magazine about her Hollywood sabbatical on the heels of Williams’s 2014 death by suicide.
“I’ve been working my entire life,” the actress from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and All My Children alum explained. “When I had kids — and it was right after Robin passed away — there was just so much going on in my life and I just said, ‘I need to take a break.'”
The Crazy Ones, with its star-studded cast under the helm of David E. Kelley, was expected to be a big hit for CBS. There was no shortage of buzz around the show, including over Williams’s Mork & Mindy reunion with Pam Dawber, but network pulled the plug after its first season. Three months later, on Aug. 11, 2014, Williams died at age 63. It was later determined he had undiagnosed Lewy body dementia, a progressive dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning and independent function.
Gellar said the death of Williams — who at the time she called “the father I had always dreamed of having” and “Uncle Robin” to her children, Charlotte, now 12, and Rocky, 9 — led her to hit pause on her acting career to focus on family.
“I need to be here for these early formative years of my kids’ life,” said Gellar, who has been married to Freddie Prinze Jr. since 2002. “I needed that break to be the parent that I wanted to be.”
She’s recently joined the cast of new Paramount+ drama series, Wolf Pack. She plays arson investigator Kristin Ramsey and executive produces the show, which films in Atlanta. It will premiere in late 2022.
“I started to really miss it,” Gellar said of acting. “But it’s also finding the right opportunity, something that speaks to you that also speaks to your audience.”
Williams was a father of three, and the trio— Zak, 39; Zelda, 33; and Cody, 30 — work to keep his legacy alive, including discussing mental health.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
