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Comedian Robin Williams’ daughter, Zelda, has begged fans to stop sending her a viral video of her late dad being impersonated.
The video is of actor and comedian Jamie Costa recreating Robin’s emotional response when he hears from his Mork and Mindy co-star Pam Dawber that his friend John Belushi had died.
Belushi died of an accidental cocaine and heroin overdose in 1982. Robin had been with him just hours before his death.
The five-minute video, entitled Robin Test Footage Scene, has gone viral and left some viewers asking for a full biopic of Robin’s life.
“Who else has been hoping Jamie would play Robin in a biopic since you saw his first Robin impressions?” one fan commented.
Another was captivated by how precisely Jamie nailed Robin’s mannerisms and voice.
“It's one thing to resemble a person but it's how much he sounds like him and has his mannerisms and expressions down that's so freaking impressive,” the fan wrote. “I hope this movie gets made. I still feel his loss.”
But someone who has had enough of watching Jamie’s
impression of Robin is Zelda. The 32-year-old actress took to Twitter to ask
fans to stop sending her the video.
“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’”, Zelda wrote.
“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.”
Robin was 63 when he died by suicide in 2014 following a battle with Lewy body dementia, a type of progressive dementia that causes a decline in thinking, reasoning and independent function.
In an interview with talk show host Chelsea Handler, Zelda opened up about how she struggled after her father’s death. Zelda says she turned to work to help her cope.
“So for a while I was left to my own devices and a lot of great stuff came out of that. I ended up writing 12 scripts, which is great, but then you're like, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’
“And also I didn't see daylight for a while.”
Zelda has siblings Cody (29) – their mom is Robin’s second wife Marsha Garces Williams – and Zak (38) whose mom is the late star’s first wife Valerie Velardi.
Zelda has always shied away from commemorating her father’s death publicly. On the second anniversary of his death, she announced that she needed to take a break from social media.
“For those who
always ask why, it's so people can memorialise Dad on the anniversary of his
death however they wish without me having to feel bombarded by it or pressured
by the expectation put on myself or my family to publicly acknowledge or join
in doing so,” she wrote on Twitter.
“I will always be grateful for all the love the world had and continues to have for dad, but for obvious reasons, it's sometimes harder to be the sort of surviving public vessel for receiving those sentiments, and one is often expected to somehow flawlessly express them back.”
Last year, she again logged off social media for a while when the anniversary of his death loomed.
“As I've said in the past, while I am constantly touched by all 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.”
Sources: people.com, nypost.com, edition.cnn.com, dailymail.co.uk
