Backstage

On location shooting a thesis project called The Theremin Man, directed by Colin Sharpe.

Thank you to the magazine L’illustre for the wonderful article they gave me in which I could announce my surprise visit to Switzerland to celebrate my Dad’s 70^th birthday!

The magazine was doing a special on Robin Williams and asked me a few questions regarding his tragic death. I was avoiding talking about it as I felt saddened and shocked by his death. When I was asked though I decided to share my feelings and thoughts about it.

Robin Williams’ death is extremely sad. He was an amazing artist who could make people cry as well as laugh. We lost someone who was doing so much good for others. My condolences go to his family and his children but I hope they are somehow comforted knowing that we’ll always be lucky enough to watch him in the great movies he acted in. One thing that struck me in Robin Williams’ face are his eyes. It was a mix of honesty, naivety, strength, talent and sadness. A little boy, pure and innocent.

We have a tendency to think that Hollywood encourages this kind of desperate act but Robin Williams had been in rehabilitation and it seems like he was recently diagnosed with Parkinson Disease, which was not announced. We’ll never know exactly why he did it, but it’s important to not close our eyes, to know how to listen to our feelings and to understand that depression is something that is chemical in the brain and not a choice.

The saying says: “Great art comes from great pain.” Sadly it often seems to be true and humor is sometimes a shield against sadness. This tragedy got and keeps getting a lot of attention because it touched a celebrity who was admired by many people but depression isn’t only for the stars in Hollywood. Everywhere in the world people suffer from it both in big cities and small ones.

I hope this tragedy will help us pay more attention to what depression is and teach us to have more compassion towards people who suffer from it. Some people wonder how a star with so much could be depressed, but a star is just a person after all. A person who fights like everyone else against their own demons. We wouldn’t ask how a banker or a lawyer could suffer from depression because they share our daily lives and we can relate to them.  There must be many people who are living in poverty from birth or people who live in a country at war such as Syria who might wonder how people fortunate enough to live in America, France or Switzerland could possibly be depressed? Money and security don’t bring happiness. Fame neither.  We can’t define a person in one word or one title. I’m sure that Robin Williams loved performing but this was only one side that we knew of his life. There was certainly a Robin Williams much more secret that nobody knew. Before being a star, Robin Williams was an actor, and before that he was a comedian, and before that a child like everyone else.