Williams starred as the title character, while Potter played a young med student who Patch bonds with

NEED TO KNOW

• Monica Potter looked back on her time making Patch Adams with Robin Williams
• She called Williams “very shy” and “extremely sensitive” and said he understood her in a unique way
• Potter also remembered working on the 1998 film with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman

Monica Potter will always remember working with Robin Williams on 1998's Patch Adams.

Potter, 54, opened up about working with Williams on the film on the May 25 episode of the Still Here Hollywood podcast with Steve Kmetko. Williams, who died in 2014 at 63, starred in the film as Hunter "Patch" Adams. 

Based on a true story, in the film, Patch is struggling with suicidal thoughts when he learns the power of humor to help patients. He decides to attend the Medical College of Virginia as its oldest first-year student. Potter starred in the film as Carin Fisher, a fellow student whom Patch bonds with.

Potter said Williams was the greatest guy “ever.” 

“He understood me,” she said. The Parenthood actress remembered of Williams, “He was very shy, and he was extremely sensitive. He was very funny, as we know, but I saw a part of myself in him.” 

Potter said Williams felt the same way, calling her the “female version of myself.” Potter, who was 27 when the film was released, remembered Williams warning her to “protect yourself.” 

Potter said that she, too, is “very sensitive” and often uses humor in conversation. “I don't normally do funny roles, but we had a lot of talks about things about life,” she said. “He was just the most empathetic person.”

Potter, who also starred in movies like Along Came a Spider and Con Air, joked that acting is the only job where someone can cry and “not get fired.”

“Robin said this to me, ‘Laughing and crying is the same thing,' ” Potter said. “And I said, ‘Thank you. I've been saying that since I was a little kid. It's the same thing. It's an expression of how you're feeling.' ”

Potter also remembered working with Philip Seymour Hoffman on the movie. The pair spent a lot of time together and had “so much fun,” she said. “And again [he was] very, very sensitive, very serious actor, but also he kind of had this wall up . . . but he was like a big teddy bear. I miss him too.” Hoffman died in 2014 at 46.

Potter praised him as “one of the funniest people I've ever worked with.” She laughed at the memory of them in Chapel Hill, N.C., watching a documentary in Potter's hotel room. It was 1997's Hands on a Hard Body, about people who agree to stand around a car with their hands on it. The person who keeps their hand on the car the longest wins it. 

She joked that watching the documentary was so stressful that he told her, "F— you, Potter. I feel like I have the flu” and “rolled off the couch” with laughter. 

Patch Adams was widely panned by critics, who felt the plot was too sentimental, but it was a major box office success, bringing in over $200 million. The real Adams, now 80, told PEOPLE in 1999 that while the movie wasn't fully accurate to his life story, there were some truths. He said, "I am not a doctor who is a clown. I am a clown who is a doctor."

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